ssed him, and he had loudly called; but the rider rode on, intent upon
the little distant station. Man and horse were soon far ahead of the
boy, and the man came into town galloping.

No need to fire the little pistol by her window, as he had once thought
to do! She was outside before he could leap to the ground. And as he
held her, she could only laugh, and cry, and say "Forgive me! Oh, why
have you been so long?" She took him back to the room where his picture
was, and made him sit, and sat herself close. "What is it?" she asked
him. For through the love she read something else in his serious face.
So then he told her how nothing was wrong; and as she listened to all
that he had to tell, she, too, grew serious, and held very close to him.
"Dear, dear neighbor!" she said.

As they sat so, happy with deepening happiness, but not gay yet, young
Billy burst open the door. "There!" he cried. "I knowed Lin knowed you
were a girl!"

Thus did Billy also have his wish. For had he not told Jessamine that he
liked her, and urged her to come and live with him and Lin? That cabin
on Box Elder became a home in truth, with a woman inside taking the
only care of Mr. McLean that he had known since his childhood: though
singularly enough he has an impression that it is he who takes care of
Jessamine!

IN THE AFTER-DAYS

The black pines stand high up the hills,
The white snow sifts their columns deep,
While through the canyon's riven cleft
From there, beyond, the rose clouds sweep.

Serene above their paling shapes
One star hath wakened in the sky.
And here in the gray world below
Over the sage the wind blows by;

Rides through the cotton-woods' ghost-ranks,
And hums aloft a sturdy tune
Among the river's tawny bluffs,
Untenanted as is the moon.

Far 'neath the huge invading dusk
Comes Silence awful through the plain;
But yonder horseman's heart is gay,
And he goes singing might and main.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lin McLean, by Owen Wister

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