ed at first to crowd her from his
memory--but in vain. Then he worked in self-defence--and to forget.

"He saw years slipping by--and himself still a farmhand. The thought
maddened him, because he knew he was worthy of something better.

"Gradually, his whole life centred upon one object--to save money for
college. Other boys called him close and cold; but he did not care. He
seldom went anywhere, so intent was he upon his one object. On hot
summer nights, tired and drowsy he would read until Nature rebelled,
and he would fall asleep to dream of a girl--a girl with brown eyes
that made one forget--everything. In winter, he had more time--and the
little lamp in his room became a sort of landmark: it burned for hours
after every other light in the valley had ceased shining.

"Four years passed, and at last the boy had won. In a month he would
pass from the prairie to university life. He had no home, few
friends--who spoke; those who did not were safely packed at the bottom
of his trunk. His going from the little town would excite no more
comment than had his coming. He was all ready, and for the first time
in his life set apart a month--the last--as a vacation. He felt
positively gay. He had fought a hard fight--and had won. He saw the
dawning of a great light--saw the future as a battle-ground where he
would fight; not as he was then, but fully equipped for the
struggle.... But no matter what air-castles he built; they were such
as young men will build to the end of time."

The speaker's voice lowered--stopped. He looked straight out over the
prairie, his eyes glistening.

"If so far the boy's life had been an inferno, he was to be repaid.
The girl--she of the brown eyes--was home once more, and they met
again as members of a camping party." He half-turned in his seat to
look at her, but she sat with face averted, so quiet, so motionless,
that he wondered if she heard.

"Are you listening?" he asked.

"Listening!" Her voice carried conviction, so the lad continued.

"For a fortnight he lived a dream--and that dream was Paradise. He
forgot the past, ignored the future, and lived solely for the
moment--with the joy of Nature's own child. It was the pure love of
the idealist and the dreamer--it was divine.

"Then came the reaction. One day he awoke--saw things as they
were--saw again the satire of Fate. At the very time he left for
college, she returned--a graduate. She was young, beautiful,
accomplished. He was