ge off the farm wagon on his return from Yankton.
He had sent her into the house; but she had found out later that the
package was in the corn-crib, and had crept in there one afternoon, when
the farm-house was deserted, and taken a good look at it as it hung from
a rafter and well out of reach. It was still unwrapped, but the brown
paper was torn in one place, and through the hole the little girl had
seen a smooth, round red stick. It was a wheel-spoke.

Her sixth-and-a-half birthday was not far off, and she had waited for
its coming as patiently as she could, in the meantime working secretly
on harnesses for the dogs, who had resigned themselves good-naturedly to
much measuring. Now, on the very eve of her happiness, she was to be
deprived of the yearned-for wagon.

Crouching in the corn-field, she grieved away the long day. Dinner-time
came, and all the corn-stalk shadows pointed significantly toward the
carnelian bluff; then they slowly shifted around to the eastward and
grew very long; and at last commingled and were blotted out by the
descending gloom that infolded the little girl.

Lying upon her back, she looked up at the sky, that with the gathering
darkness of the warm summer night disclosed its twinkling stars, and
wished that she could suddenly die out there in the field in some
mysterious way, so that there might be much self-condemning woe at the
farm-house when they found her, cold and still. And she could not
refrain from weeping with sheer pity for herself. After pondering for a
while on the sad picture of her untimely death, she changed to one of
great deeds and happiness, wealth and renown, in some far-off land
toward which she was half determined to set out. But this delightful
dream was rudely broken into.

A long blast from the cow-horn sounded through the quiet night and
echoed itself against the bluff. The little girl sat up and looked
toward the house through the dark aisles of the corn.

"I'm not coming," she said, speaking out loud in a voice that broke as
she ended, "I'm going to stay here and _starve_ to death!"

Once more the cow-horn blew, and this time the call was more prolonged
and commanding in tone. It brought the little girl to her feet, and she
hunted up her hat and put it on. Then, as two short, peremptory blasts
rang out, she started toward home.

* * * * *

NEXT morning she dressed hurriedly and got to the sitting-room as
quickly as she cou