n. "Oh, yes, I've had sport
enough," he said. "But what a night it was! The happiest night of all
my life. Every star that shone seemed to shine for me; every wind
that blew seemed to bring me a message; and every bird that sang, as
the day was dawning, seemed to sing the song of all my happiness. Oh,
it has been a triumphant night, Greeba."

She turned her head away from him, but he did not stop.

"And this morning, coming down from Barrule, everything seemed to
speak to me of one thing, and that was the dearest thing in all the
world. 'Dear little river,' I said, 'how happily you sing your way to
the sea.' And then I remembered that before it got there it would
turn the wheel for us at Port-y-Vullin some day, and so I said 'Dear
little mill, how merrily you'll go when I listen to your plash and
plunge, with her I love beside me."

She did not speak, and after a moment he laughed.

"That's very foolish, isn't it?" he said.

"Oh, no," she said. "Why foolish?"

"Well it sounds so; but, ah, last night the stars around me on the
mountain top seemed like a sanctuary, and this morning the birds
among the gorse were like a choir, and all sang together, and away to
the roof their word rang out--Greeba! Greeba! Greeba!"

He could hear a faint sobbing.

"Greeba!"

"Yes?"

"You are crying."

"Am I? Oh, no! No, Jason, not that."

"I must go. What a fool I am," he muttered, and picked up his gun.

"Oh no; don't say that."

"Greeba!"

"Well, Jason?"

"I'm going now, but----"

"Why?"

"I'm not my own man this morning. I'm talking foolishly."

"Well, and do you think a girl doesn't like foolishness?"

He threw his head back and laughed at the blue sky. "But I'm coming
back for you in the evening. I am to get the last of my rafters on
to-day, and when a building is raised it's a time to make merry."

He laughed again with a joyous lightness, and turned to go, and she
waved her hand to him as he passed out of the gate. Then, one, two,
three, four, his strong rhythmic steps went off behind the elms, and
then he was gone, and the early sun was gone with him, for its
brightness seemed to have died out of the air.

And being alone Greeba knew why she had tried to keep Jason by her
side, for while he was with her the temptation was not strong to
break in upon his happiness, but when he was no longer there, do what
she would, she could not but remember Michael Sunlocks.

"Oh, what have I done that two brave men