attacks, the final sight of Old Glory on the outer walls, and your
triumphal entry through the sewer. You see why I forgot."

He took a little package from his writing desk and gave it into Thaine
Aydelot's hand.

The young soldier tried to open it with steady fingers, for the address
was in a handwriting he knew well. Inside a flat little box was a card
bearing the words:

To Prince Quippi, Beyond the Purple Notches.

And underneath that lay a withered little yellow sunflower.

* * * * *

Two evenings later as the three men sat together, Horace Carey suddenly
gripped Thaine's hand in his, then sank back in his chair with eyes that
seemed looking straight into eternal peace; and the same smile that had
won men to him seemed winning the angels to welcome him heavenward. In the
midst of his busy, useful years his big work was done.

* * * * *

The sunflowers were just beginning to blossom along the old Grass River
Trail. The line of timber following every stream was in the full leafage
of May. The wheat lay like a yellow-green sea over all the wide prairies.
The breeze came singing down the valley, a morning song of gladness.

Leigh Shirley had come up early to the Sunflower Ranch to spend the day
and night with Virginia Aydelot, while Asher and her uncle Jim took a two
days' business trip to Big Wolf with Darley Champers. Jim had brought
Virginia a big bunch of exquisite roses which nobody but Jim Shirley could
ever have grown to such perfection.

Virginia went into the house to find the tall cut-glass vase Doctor Carey
had sent to her when he started West, while Leigh went to the gate of the
side lot to pet a pretty black colt that whinnied to her.

"You beautiful Juno!" she cried, patting the creature's nose. "Mrs.
Aydelot says you are as graceful and well-bred as all your grandmothers
have been since the time a Juno long ago followed a prairie schooner down
the old Grass River Trail to a little sod shack on a treeless claim in the
wilderness. This is too fine a morning to go indoors," she added as she
came back to the front lawn to the seat under the fragrant white
honeysuckle.

She was as sweet as a blossom herself this morning, with her soft
brown-gold hair waving back from her face, and her blue eyes full of
light.

Somebody had turned from the road and was coming up the walk with
springing step. Lei