a real gift from God.
Don't you think so, too?"

"Yes, Virginia," said the boy.

Then he gathered up the reins and drove his horses through the creek, and
on toward the Gap and the open prairie.

"Don," cried the girl, suddenly clutching his arm with one hand and
pointing with the other, "there's some wild bergamot just opening! I never
knew it to be as early as this! And see! There's a sunflower on the edge
of the wheat field! There'll be thousands of them soon! They're like
Priscilla! She has such big, brown eyes, and is always so merry and
sunny. I know you'll like her, Don. And Mary? I think Mary's like the
larkspur in the Valley, don't you? So independent, and sort of--of
_self-resourceful_, as Miss Wallace says, and true. I wonder what Vivian's
like? Oh, I know! The bluebells back there by the creek. They always must
have a shady spot away from the hot sun. That's like Vivian, but she's
dear just the same, and some day I really believe she'll be able to stand
hard things as well as the rest of us. Tell me, Don, are you just as
excited inside as I am?"

Donald Keith laughed.

"Of course, I am," he said, "only, you see, Virginia, I don't get so
excited on the outside as you do. Fellows don't, I guess."

"I guess not," returned Virginia thoughtfully. "Father says I need you for
a balance-wheel. He says he doesn't know what would happen if we both
talked as much and got as excited as I do. You see, I'm seventeen now, and
I think he wants me to begin to be a little more--more level-headed, and
dignified. But I don't know how to begin. Things just spring up inside of
me, and they have to come out!"

"Don't try," said the boy bluntly. "I like you best just as you are,
Virginia."

She sighed--a happy, little sigh.

"I'm glad," she said. "I don't know what I'd do if you didn't, Don. Think
of all the good times we'd miss!"

They passed a little stream, hurrying on toward Elk Creek. Some
quaking-asps made a shady spot where ferns grew.

"Just the spot for gentians in August," cried Virginia. "The girls will
love them so! I'm going to try to send some to Miss Wallace. She'll be in
Chicago, so maybe they'll go safely that distance. She's always told me so
much about that wonderful blue color in the old Italian pictures. She says
that no one has been able to make exactly that shade since. I told her I
just knew our mountain gentians were that blue, and I'd send her some. My!
I wish she were coming, too! She's so l