ple.

But the meat-cart jolted on and out of sight, and for a long time
nothing disturbed the stillness except the distant whirring of a reaper
and nearer buzzing of a fat, inquisitive bluebottle fly, which paused to
see what this strange thing might be, and then zoomed off excitedly to
tell his associates.

At length there came a dry rustling in the tall standing wheat in the
field on the opposite side of the road, and a head and shoulders
appeared above the topmost fence-rail. It was a small head covered with
tow-colored hair, which had been slicked back and braided so tightly
that the short, meager cue curled outward and up in a crescent, as
though it were wired, and the shoulders beneath the coarse
blue-and-white striped cotton gown were thin and peaked.

The girl darted a swift, furtive glance up and down the road, and
suddenly thrust a bundle tied in a greasy apron between the rails,
letting it fall in the high, dusty weeds by the roadside. Next she
climbed to the top of the fence, and for a moment perched there,
displaying a slim length of coarse black stocking above clumping,
square-toed shoes at least two sizes too large for her.

She looked like a very forlorn, feminine _Monte Cristo_ indeed, as
she scanned the world from her vantage-point, and yet there was a look
of quiet satisfaction and achievement in her incongruously dark eyes
which told of a momentous object accomplished.

Then all at once they stared and softened as she caught sight of that
still figure lying across the road, and in two bounds she was beside him
and lifted his head against her sharp knees. She noted only casually
that he was a clean-shaven, tanned young man with brown hair bleached by
the sun to a warm gold, and that he wore shabby, weather-beaten clothes.

Had she realized that those same worn, faded garments bore the stamp of
one of New York's most exclusive tailors! that the boots were
London-made, and the golf-stockings which met the corduroy
knickerbockers came from one of Scotland's famous mills, it would have
meant just exactly nothing in her young life.

Her immediate attention was concentrated upon the jagged gash which ran
unpleasantly close to his temple, and which had begun to bleed afresh as
she raised his head.

The girl looked about her again and saw that a short distance ahead the
road was bisected by a bridge of planks with willows bordering it at
either side. She pulled at the strings which held a blue sunbon