er nest, she will have more chance to bring off
her young in safety. He is blood red, because he is the bravest, gayest,
most ardent lover of the whole woods," explained the Harvester.

The Girl leaned forward breathlessly watching and a slow surge of colour
crept into her cheeks. The red bird twisted, whistled, rocked, tilted,
and trilled, and the gray sat demurely watching him, as if only half
convinced he really meant it. The gay lover began at the beginning and
said it all over again with more impassioned gestures than before, and
then he edged in touch and softly stroked her wing with his beak.
She appeared startled, but did not fly. So again the fountain of
half-whistled, half-trilled notes bubbled with the acme of pleading
intonation and that time he leaned and softly kissed her as she reached
her bill for the caress. Then she fled in headlong flight, while the
streak of flame darted after her. The Girl caught her breath in a swift
spasm of surprise and wonder. She turned to the Harvester.

"What was it you wanted to say to me?" she asked hurriedly.

The Harvester was not the man to miss the goods the gods provided. Truly
this was his lucky day. Unhesitatingly he took the plunge.

"Precisely what he said to her. And if you observed closely, you noticed
that she didn't ask him 'why.'"

Before she could open her lips, he was gone, his swift strides carrying
him through the woods.

CHAPTER XII. "THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID"

The next day the Harvester lifted the oilcloth, and picking up a folded
note he read----

"Aunt Molly found rest in the night. She was more comfortable than she
had been since I have known her. Close the end she whispered to me to
thank you if I ever saw you again. She will be buried to-morrow. Past
that, I dare not think."

The Harvester sat on the log and studied the lines. She would not come
that day or the next. After a long time he put the note in his pocket,
wrote an answer telling her he had been there, and would come on the
following day on the chance of her wanting anything he could do, and the
next he would bring the ginseng money, so she must be sure to meet him.

Then he went back to the wagon, turned Betsy, and drove around the
Jameson land watching closely. There were several vehicles in the barn
lot, and a couple of men sitting under the trees of the door yard. Faded
bedding hung on the line and women moved through the rooms, but he could
not see the Girl. Slowly h