w the cover closely around her.

"Don't speak a word for a long time," he said. "Just rest. If I tire you
too much and spoil everything, I will be desperate."

He clasped her to him, laid his cheek against her hair, and his lips on
her forehead. He held her hand and kissed it over and over, and again
he watched and could find no resentment. The cool, pungent breeze swept
from the lake, and the voices of wild life chattered at their feet.
Sometimes the water folks splashed, while a big black and gold butterfly
mistook the Girl's dark hair for a perching place and settled on it,
slowly opening its wonderful wings.

"Lie quietly, Girl," whispered the Harvester. "You are wearing a living
jewel, an ornament above price, on your hair. Maybe you can see it when
it goes. There!"

"Oh I did!" she cried. "How I love it here! Before long may I lie in the
dining-room window a while so I can see the water. I like the hill, but
I love the lake more."

"Now if you just would love me," said the Harvester, "you would have all
Medicine Woods in your heart."

"Don't hurry me so!" said the Girl. "You gave me a year; and it's only a
few weeks, and I've not been myself, and I'm not now. I mustn't make any
mistake, and all I know for sure is that I want you most, and I can rest
best with you, and I miss you every minute you are gone. I think that
should satisfy you."

"That would be enough for any reasonable man," said the Harvester
angrily. "Forgive me, Ruth, I have been cruel. I forgot how frail and
weak you are. It is having Harmon here that makes me unnatural. It
almost drives me to frenzy to know that he may take you from me."

"Then send him away!"

"SEND HIM AWAY?"

"Yes, send him away! I am tired to death of his poetry, and seeing him
spoon around. Send both of them away quickly!"

The Harvester gulped, blinked, and surreptitiously felt for her pulse.

"Oh, I've not developed fever again," she said. "I'm all right. But it
must be a fearful expense to have both of them here by the week, and I'm
so tired of them, Granny says she can take care of me just as well,
and the girl who helps her can cook. No one but you shall lift me, if I
don't get my nose Out until I can walk alone Both of them are perfectly
useless, and I'd much rather you'd send them away."

"There, there! Of course!" said the Harvester soothingly. "I'll do it
as soon as I possibly dare. You don't understand, honey. You are yet
delicate beyond measure, inte