him so far away in his store clothes."

"Must have been a pleasant surprise for you," said Hornby with
conviction.

"What's happened? Tell me what's happened."

"Mrs. Sharp came on here because she was too anxious to stay at home,"
Nora explained.

"Oh, you're all right."

"We are?" Mrs. Sharp gave a sobbing gasp of relief.

"Only a few acres got to go. That won't hurt you."

"Thank God for that! And it's goin' to be the best crop we ever had.
It's the finest country in the world!" Her face was beaming.

"You'd better be getting back," warned Taylor. "Sid's taken the
inspector up to give him some dinner."

"He hasn't!" said Mrs. Sharp indignantly. "If that isn't just like a
man." She made a gesture condemning the sex. "It's a mercy there's
plenty in the house. But I must be getting along right away," she
bustled.

"But you mustn't think of walking all that way back in the hot sun,"
expostulated Nora. "There's Eddie's rig. Reggie, here, will drive you
over."

"Oh, thank you, kindly. I'm not used to walking very much, you know, and
I'd be all tuckered out by the time I got back home. Good-by, all. Good
afternoon, Mrs. Taylor."

"Good afternoon. Reggie, you won't mind driving Mrs. Sharp back. It's
only just a little over a mile."

"Not a bit of it," said Hornby good-naturedly.

"I'll come and help you put the mare in," said Marsh, starting to follow
Hornby and Mrs. Sharp down the path.

"I guess it's a relief to you, now you know," he called back to his
brother-in-law.

"Terrible. I want to have a talk with you presently, Ed. I'll go on out
with him, I guess," he said, turning to his wife.

She nodded silently. She was grateful to him for leaving her alone for a
time. They would have much to say to each other a little later.

"Hold on, Ed, I'm coming."

"Right you are!"

He ran lightly down the path where his brother-in-law stood waiting for
him.

She stood for a long moment looking down at the innocent-looking little
blossoms on her table. And they could cause such heartbreak and
desolation, ranking, as engines of destruction, with the frost and the
hail! Could make such seasoned and tried women as Mrs. Sharp weep and
bring the gray look of apprehension into the eyes of a man like her
husband. Those innocent-looking little flowers!

What must he have felt as he saw her arranging them so light-heartedly
in her pudding-dish that morning. And yet, rather than mar her pleasure,
he had choked bac