silently watching them.
But they found few signs of the gopher burrowing they felt sure had
devastated the ground. All at once the eldest brother had a brilliant
thought, and, with a glance at the little girl, who was nervously
twisting her fingers, paced eastward and counted the rows that made up
the barren strip. There were just eighty!

He came back and joined his brothers; and the little girl, standing
before him, dared not lift her eyes to his face.

"Did you plant that corn?" he demanded, ramming the butt of his musket
into the ground.

"Yes," answered the little girl, her voice husky with apprehension.
There was a pause.

"Did a lot of gophers come in while you's a-planting?" asked the biggest
brother, more kindly.

"Oh, a _lot_," answered the little girl.

"Did you sling clods at 'em?" demanded the eldest brother, again
pounding the musket into the dirt.

"Nearly slung my arm off," answered the little girl.

The eldest brother grunted incredulously.

"It's mighty funny," he said, "that the gophers liked _your_ planting
better 'n anybody else's."

The little girl did not answer. Her forehead was puckered painfully as,
gripping her hat, she stood busily curling and uncurling her toes in the
dirt. Her lashes were fluttering as if she awaited a blow.

"I'll just ask you one thing," went on the eldest brother; "what's
to-morrow?"

The little girl started as if the blow had fallen, and stammered her
answer.

"My--my--birfday," she said.

"A--_ha_," he replied suggestively. Then he tramped to the timothy
meadow, the others following. And the little girl, walking very slowly,
came on behind.

* * * * *

WHEN the big brothers had gone on to the farm-house, the little girl
still tarried in the corn-field. Her eldest brother's hint concerning
her birthday had suggested the cruel punishment she felt certain was to
be hers, and she could not bear to face the family at the dinner-table.

For months she had longed for a little red wagon--a wagon with a long
tongue, and "Express" on the side in black letters; and had planned how
she would harness Bruno and Luffree to it and drive along the level
prairie roads. Evening after evening she had taken out the thick
catalogue and pored over the prices, and had shown the kind she wanted
again and again to all the big brothers in turn.

Then one day she had surprised her biggest brother while he was taking a
bulky brown-paper packa