suppose"
"Why, are you in some sort of trouble?" she asked, interrupting him.
"Not very serious. I need a herder. I really ought to have two or three for a
while now. I don't suppose, Miss Janet, there is any doubt that you will
pass?"
"I think," she said, a playful light now touching her features, "it is quite
possible for me not to pass. I suppose I could have passed easily enough four
years ago. But after I got out of the Academy, I went to live with my aunt; and
women, you know, don't keep up their interest in algebra and things. This winter
when Aunt Mary died, in Toledo, I came down here."
She stepped forward again and extended her hand.
He had been seeing more and more of beauty as he gazed into her eyes. The
Truth was in them deeper than words. They were large gray eyes, gentle and quiet
and soft as dawn; and they had that fulfilling influence which spread peace upon
the waters of his soul.
"Good-bye, Mr. Brown. I am very much obliged to you."
"Wellgood-bye, Miss Janet. Be sure and let me know."
She turned at once and proceeded on her way.
With her attention straight ahead, but without any landmark to go by, she
went resolutely forward, and when finally she turned to look back she saw him
standing just as she had left him. He did not seem to have moved. Again she put
forward, widening the distance in imagination; and the next time she turned to
view her work, the shack was sinking behind a billow of land. She stood now and
gazed back at the flat, flowered expanse; then she turned her back upon it for
the last time. One does not look long upon the gay curtain after it has closed
upon the scene.
"I would be interested in knowing whether you pass." The morning had shed new
light upon her situation; and this shed a light upon morning. And now that she
could view her adventure in the light of its outcome, she went back to the
moment of their meeting, and did so, recalling what next he said or did. She
lived it all over again; this time more understandingly. Meantime the prairie
accommodated her with its silence. It was the same sameness as on the day
before; but not to her.
With her eyes fixed upon infinity she went buoyantly forward; for this time
she was not lost. The sun, already high when she arose, was blazing somewhere in
the regions above, and the strong light, flaring in her face and shining on the
broad reaches ahead, was very trying to her eyes. After peering against it
ineffectually for a while she took off the three-cornered hat and proceeded to
undo her work of the day before, removing the pins and letting down the rim.
The wearing of a man's hat was one of those things which she herself would
"never have thought of." But just at a time when she had been having experience
with the tribulations of a big leghorn on horseback, she saw a woman with a
man's hat turned up at the side; and the next day she had procured one like it,
which she turned up in the same manner with a breastpin. And the leghorn,
unsuited to trials of wind and weather, was left at home.
The womanRaymond her name waswas passing the school on horseback, and she
stopped in to get a drink. Janet noticed the hat more particularly because of
its contrast with the woman's hair, which was light like her own; although, as
she observed to herself, of quite a different shade. As it was almost noon she
stopped for lunch, and Janet found her very good company if not quite to her
fancy. She smelled horribly of perfume.
With the brim shading her eyes, Janet could now look forward with a degree of
comfort. Presently she was brought to a stop by a small stream. It was a mere
brookprobably the water from a single spring such as the one which issued from
the knoll; but at this point it spread out and took the form of a wide patch of
marsh grass. Farther down it gathered its laggard waters together and became a
brook again. Janet, keeping clear of the bog, went down here intending to jump
across. Finding it
"Why, are you in some sort of trouble?" she asked, interrupting him.
"Not very serious. I need a herder. I really ought to have two or three for a
while now. I don't suppose, Miss Janet, there is any doubt that you will
pass?"
"I think," she said, a playful light now touching her features, "it is quite
possible for me not to pass. I suppose I could have passed easily enough four
years ago. But after I got out of the Academy, I went to live with my aunt; and
women, you know, don't keep up their interest in algebra and things. This winter
when Aunt Mary died, in Toledo, I came down here."
She stepped forward again and extended her hand.
He had been seeing more and more of beauty as he gazed into her eyes. The
Truth was in them deeper than words. They were large gray eyes, gentle and quiet
and soft as dawn; and they had that fulfilling influence which spread peace upon
the waters of his soul.
"Good-bye, Mr. Brown. I am very much obliged to you."
"Wellgood-bye, Miss Janet. Be sure and let me know."
She turned at once and proceeded on her way.
With her attention straight ahead, but without any landmark to go by, she
went resolutely forward, and when finally she turned to look back she saw him
standing just as she had left him. He did not seem to have moved. Again she put
forward, widening the distance in imagination; and the next time she turned to
view her work, the shack was sinking behind a billow of land. She stood now and
gazed back at the flat, flowered expanse; then she turned her back upon it for
the last time. One does not look long upon the gay curtain after it has closed
upon the scene.
"I would be interested in knowing whether you pass." The morning had shed new
light upon her situation; and this shed a light upon morning. And now that she
could view her adventure in the light of its outcome, she went back to the
moment of their meeting, and did so, recalling what next he said or did. She
lived it all over again; this time more understandingly. Meantime the prairie
accommodated her with its silence. It was the same sameness as on the day
before; but not to her.
With her eyes fixed upon infinity she went buoyantly forward; for this time
she was not lost. The sun, already high when she arose, was blazing somewhere in
the regions above, and the strong light, flaring in her face and shining on the
broad reaches ahead, was very trying to her eyes. After peering against it
ineffectually for a while she took off the three-cornered hat and proceeded to
undo her work of the day before, removing the pins and letting down the rim.
The wearing of a man's hat was one of those things which she herself would
"never have thought of." But just at a time when she had been having experience
with the tribulations of a big leghorn on horseback, she saw a woman with a
man's hat turned up at the side; and the next day she had procured one like it,
which she turned up in the same manner with a breastpin. And the leghorn,
unsuited to trials of wind and weather, was left at home.
The womanRaymond her name waswas passing the school on horseback, and she
stopped in to get a drink. Janet noticed the hat more particularly because of
its contrast with the woman's hair, which was light like her own; although, as
she observed to herself, of quite a different shade. As it was almost noon she
stopped for lunch, and Janet found her very good company if not quite to her
fancy. She smelled horribly of perfume.
With the brim shading her eyes, Janet could now look forward with a degree of
comfort. Presently she was brought to a stop by a small stream. It was a mere
brookprobably the water from a single spring such as the one which issued from
the knoll; but at this point it spread out and took the form of a wide patch of
marsh grass. Farther down it gathered its laggard waters together and became a
brook again. Janet, keeping clear of the bog, went down here intending to jump
across. Finding it
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