the clouds had faded to a low, pale bank of receding vapour behind
the forest, the aspect of the night changed. It grew more distinctly
dark, less unreal and shadowy, while the stars seemed to shine more
brilliantly in consequence. But the faint bird-calls, the elfin
pipings, still floated down from the hushed heights of air.

The quiet, the calm, the slow stately ascension of the stars were
already soothing Dick.

A meteor fell with a curious, leisurely slide, from the midst of the
heavens to the outermost darkness upon the horizon. He remembered how,
when he and Stephanie had been children, they used to watch for the
falling stars, so that they might wish their dearest wish upon seeing
them. "After all," he said to himself with a sudden rush of
tenderness, "my greatest wish is to see her as happy as she deserves to
be. Roger's a good fellow, and I should be a selfish brute if I let my
moping ways sadden her, God bless her!" Even this little thought
showed how great a change had taken place in Dick's character.

His thoughts turned to the limitless prairies of richest soil, to the
untouched forests, to the wide beauty of lake and river, to all those
fair pictures of the wilderness graven upon his heart. He thought of
the clear skies, of the stinging cold, of the splendour of summer, of
the fulfilment of the fall. He thought, with new insight, of the
meaning hidden beneath the round of farmer's toil which now held him,
of the results of that labour which he had at first given so
grudgingly, of the great purpose, the divine symbolism, which may make
agriculture the highest of all occupations, the most far-reaching of
all labours.

And then as he leant over the little gate, with eyes as dreamy as of
old, some vision of a possible future did come to him. Dimly, as
dreams must go, he saw towns arising beside those rivers, and chimneys
sending the smoke of peaceful hearts across those radiant skies. Not
much he saw; but it was enough to make him say in his soul with the man
of ancient days: "The lot is fallen unto me in a fairground; yea, I
have a goodly heritage." A goodly heritage indeed, O Dick, as we of
later generation know. Though you knew it not, the unloved toil you
faced so well went to the building of a nation. In a fair ground the
lot had fallen unto you, and, standing there in the darkness, you
realised the possibilities of that lot for the first time. You
realised that the beauty of the wildern