g of pine and hay and a
stronger balm that seemed to fill his breast with sunshine. He walked
toward the nearest shade--a cluster of young buckeyes--and having with
a certain civic fastidiousness flicked the dust from a stump with his
handkerchief he sat down. It was very quiet and calm. The life and
animation of early morning had already vanished from the hill, or seemed
to be suspended with the sun in the sky. He could see the ranchmen and
oxen toiling on the green terraced slopes below, but no sound reached
his ears. Even the house he had just quitted seemed empty of life
throughout its rambling length. His seclusion was complete. Could he
stand it for three weeks? Perhaps it need not be for so long; he
was already stronger! He foresaw that the ascetic Seth might become
wearisome. He had an intuition that Mrs. Rivers would be equally so; he
should certainly quarrel with Melinda, and this would probably debar him
from the company of the children--his only hope.

But his seclusion was by no means so complete as he expected.
He presently was aware of a camp-meeting hymn hummed somewhat
ostentatiously by a deep contralto voice, which he at once recognized as
Melinda's, and saw that severe virgin proceeding from the kitchen along
the ridge until within a few paces of the buckeyes, when she stopped
and, with her hand shading her eyes, apparently began to examine the
distant fields. She was a tall, robust girl, not without certain rustic
attractions, of which she seemed fully conscious. This latter weakness
gave Mr. Hamlin a new idea. He put up the penknife with which he had
been paring his nails while wondering why his hands had become so thin,
and awaited events. She presently turned, approached the buckeyes,
plucked a spike of the blossoms with great girlish lightness, and then
apparently discovering Mr. Hamlin, started in deep concern and said with
somewhat stentorian politeness: "I BEG your pardon--didn't know I was
intruding!"

"Don't mention it," returned Jack promptly, but without moving. "I saw
you coming and was prepared; but generally--as I have something the
matter with my heart--a sudden joy like this is dangerous."

Somewhat mystified, but struggling between an expression of rigorous
decorum and gratified vanity, Miss Melinda stammered, "I was only"--

"I knew it--I saw what you were doing," interrupted Jack gravely, "only
I wouldn't do it if I were you. You were looking at one of those young
men down the