are such
pretty little grape-like clusters; but if you touch them the slightest
you soil the wonderful surface."

"And that makes the fairies very sad," said the Harvester. "They love
that vine best of any, because they paint its fruit with the most care.
'Bloom' the scientists call it. You see it on cultivated plums, grapes,
and apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed and black
haws in the woods. You should be able to design a number of pretty
things from the cohosh leaves and berries, too. You scarcely can get a
start this fall, but early in the spring you can begin, and follow the
season. If your work comes out well this winter, I'll send some of it to
the big publishing houses, and you can make book and magazine covers and
decorations, if you would like."

"'If I would like!' How modest! You know perfectly well that if I could
make a design that would be accepted, and used on a book or magazine, I
would almost fly. Oh do you suppose I could?"

"I don't 'suppose' anything about it, I know," said the Harvester. "It
is not possible that the public can be any more tired of wild roses,
golden-rod, and swallows than the poor art editors who accept them
because they can't help themselves. Dangle something fresh and new under
their noses and see them snap. The next time I go to Onabasha I'll get
you some popular magazines, and you can compare what is being used with
what you see here, and judge for yourself how glad they would be for a
change. And potteries, arts and crafts shops, and wall paper factories,
they'd be crazy for the designs I could furnish them. As for money,
there's more in it than the herbs, if I only could draw."

"I can do that," said the Girl. "Trail the vine and give me an idea
how to scale it. I'll just make studies now, and this winter I'll
conventionalize them and work them into patterns. Won't that be fun?"

"That's more than fun, Ruth," said the Harvester solemnly. "That is
creation. That touches the provinces of the Almighty. That is taking His
unknown wonders and making them into pleasure and benefit for thousands,
not to mention filling your face with awe divine, and lighting your eyes
with interest and ambition. That is life, Ruth. You are beginning to
live right now."

"I see," said the Girl. "I understand! I am!"

"You get your subjects now. When the harvest is over I'll show you what
I have in my head, and before Christmas the fun will begin."

"What next?"

"Sketc