N SAYS GOOD-BYE.

Elga went back to her friends, the Holts, in the course of a week. It
hurt Anson terribly to see how eager she was to get away, and he grew a
little bitter--a quality of temper Bert did not know he possessed.

"What's that little whipper-snapper ever done for her, that she should
leave us in the shade f'r him--f'rget us an' all we've done f'r her,
an' climb out an' leave us just at his wink? It beats me, but it's all
right. I don't blame her if she feels so--only it does seem queer, now
don't it?"

"It does, that's a fact--'specially the idea of leaving us for a thing
like that."

After arriving at a complete understanding of the matter, they said no
more about it, but went to work to make everything as pleasant for
Flaxen as possible. Again they rode down to the station with her, down
past the wide, level fields of grain which the blazing sun had ripened
prematurely. Again they parted from her at the train, but this time the
girl was eager to go; and yet a peculiar feeling of sadness was mixed
with her eagerness to be off.

"Now, boys, you'll come down just as soon as you can this fall, won't
you?" she said, tearfully, as they stood in the aisle of the car. "I
wish't you'd sell out an' come back there an' live--I want you to."

"Well, we'll try," Anson said, speaking with difficulty, the lump in
his throat was so big and so dry.

They rode home in silence again, but this time there was something
darker and more sullen in their thoughts.

"Well, Ans, that settles it. We're orphaned again, sure." He tried to
give a little touch of jocoseness to it, but failed miserably.

"Yes," Anson sighed deeply, "we'll haf t' stand it, I s'pose, but it's
tough."

It was hard, but it would have been harder had not the rush and push of
the harvest come upon them just as it did. They never spoke of the
matter again, except as a matter settled, till they received a letter
from the young people asking their consent to an early marriage.

They both read the letter, and then Anson said, without raising his
eyes:

"Well, what d' you think of it?"

"Oh, we might as well say yes," replied Bert irritably.

"But she's so young."

"She seems so to us, but my mother was married at fifteen. If she's
going to leave us, why, the sooner she has a home the better, I
s'pose."

"I s'pose you're right. But I'd rather have 'em put it off a year."

"Oh, a year wouldn't make any difference, and besides, you can't stop