it scarcely would have been bad enough to put
lines in his face she never had noticed before, dark circles under his
eyes, a look of weariness in his bearing. She doubted as she looked at
him if he were really courting Mrs. Southey. Even as she thought of
these things she was asking: "She's better now?"

"Yes, easier, but she suffered terribly. Adam was upset completely.
Adam, 3d, and Susan and their families are away from home and won't be
back for a few days unless I send for them. They went to Ohio to visit
some friends. I stopped to ask if it would be possible for you to go
down this evening and sleep there, so that if there did happen to be a
recurrence, Adam wouldn't be alone."

"Of course," said Kate, glancing at the baby. "I'll go right away!"

"No need for that," he said, "if you'll arrange to stay with Adam
to-night, as a precaution. You needn't go till bed-time. I'm going
back after supper to put them in shape for the night. I'm almost sure
she'll be all right now; but you know how frightened we can get about
those we love."

"Yes, I know," said Kate, quietly, going straight on ripping open ear
after ear of corn. Presently she wondered why he did not go. She
looked up at him and met his eyes. He was studying her intently. Kate
was vividly conscious in an instant of her bare wind-teased head, her
husking gloves; she was not at all sure that her face was clean. She
smiled at him, and picking up the sunbonnet lying beside her, she wiped
her face with the skirt.

"If this sun hits too long on the same spot, it grows warm," she told
him.

"Kate, I do wish you wouldn't!" he exclaimed abruptly.

Kate was too forthright for sparring.

"Why not?" she asked.

"For one thing, you are doing a man's work," he said. "For another, I
hate to see you burn the loveliest hair I ever saw on the head of a
woman, and coarsen your fine skin."

Kate looked down at the ear of corn she held in her hands, and
considered an instant.

"There hasn't any man been around asking to relieve me of this work,"
she said. "I got my start in life doing a man's work, and I'm frank to
say that I'd far rather do it any day, than what is usually considered
a woman's. As for my looks, I never set a price on them or let them
interfere with business, Robert."

"No, I know you don't," he said. "But it's a pity to spoil you."

"I don't know what's the matter with you," said Kate, patiently. She
bent her head toward him. "