is
gentle, very tender and----and affectionate," he went on so rapidly that
Granny Moreland could not say a word, "and as soon as I bring her home
you shall come to spend a day and get acquainted. I know you will love
her! I'll come in the morning, then. I must hurry now. I am working
double this spring and I'm off for the skunk cabbage bed to-day."

"You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say. Slavin' like a horse
all day, and half the night I see your lights burning."

"Do I appear killed?" laughingly inquired the Harvester.

"You look peart as a struttin' turkey gobbler," said the old woman. "Go
on with your work! Work don't hurt a-body. Eat a-plenty, sleep all you
ort, and you CAN'T work enough to hurt you."

"So the neighbours say I'm working now? New story, isn't it? Usually I'm
too lazy to make a living, if I remember."

"Only to those who don't sense your purceedings, David. I always knowed
how you grubbed and slaved an' set over them fearful books o' yours."

"More interesting than the wildest fiction," said the man. "I'm making
some medicine for your rheumatism, Granny. It is not fully tested yet,
but you get ready for it by cutting out all the salt you can. I haven't
time to explain this morning, but you remember what I say, leave out the
salt, and when Doc thinks it's safe I'll bring you something that will
make a new woman of you."

He went swinging down the road, and Granny Moreland looked after him.

"While he was talkin'," she muttered, "I felt full of information as a
flock o' almanacs, but now since he's gone, 'pears to me I don't know a
thing more 'an I did to start on."

"Close call," the Harvester was thinking. "Why the nation did I admit
anything to her? People may talk as they please, so long as I don't
sanction it, but I have two or three times. That's a fool trick. Suppose
I can't find her? Maybe she won't look at me if I can. Then I'd have
started something I couldn't finish. And if anybody thinks I'll end
this by taking any girl I can get, if I can't find Her, why they think
wrongly. Just the girl of my golden dream or no woman at all for me.
I've lived alone long enough to know how to do it in comfort. If I can't
find and win her I have no intention of starting a boarding house."

The Harvester began to laugh. "'I'd rather keep bachelor's hall in Hell
than go to board in Heaven!'" he quoted gaily. "That's my sentiment too.
If you can't have what you want, don't have anything. B