ion, but these were
soon dashed to the ground, and he went with them. He arose (he had by
this time become an expert at arising), and again there was a truce,
which he gratefully accepted, for he was ready enough to enjoy peace
while it lasted.

Walking by a brook which skirted a little farm, his mind was busy with
reflections. Heretofore he had looked at these places and seen them in
the gross, as it were; now no detail escaped him. He saw to-night
that the weeds were rampant among the peas and that in the next bed
the onions were drooping, evidently having been trampled upon.

"Why is it," he argued gently to himself, "vicious things flourish in
the face of every discouragement, while it requires so much coaxing
and care to keep good and useful articles above ground? One might jump
up and down on a weed continuously every day for a month, and the
moment his back was turned it would be up again, whereas once stepping
on a young blade of corn or the first shoots of an onion is the end of
it."

Then he looked at Sarah Maria and bethought him how she never had a
sick day since they owned her, while a tractable, useful cow would
have died half a dozen times over in this period, of pneumonia or
consumption.

"Why is it?" he asked.

He might have answered this question and thus solved a problem that
has been perplexing humanity ever since Adam and Eve were told to go,
but Sarah Maria preferred her own movements to those of the
intellect, and realizing that it was growing late, she set off on a
hard run for home.

Now Steve had never in his college days, ranked as an athlete, but as
he flew over the ground that night, with the long rope that bridged
the difference betwixt himself and Sarah Maria quite taut, he had an
injured feeling, as of one to whom injustice had been done. Not even
the champion runner had ever made such time.

The violence of his gait would have proved exhaustive had it been too
long continued, but Sarah Maria was merciful, and ere long Steve came
upon her standing in her box-car attitude. She loosened up by-and-by
and again started toward home with the speed of a race-horse, but this
time Steve was in front, and could his friends have seen how well he
kept in front they would have covered him with adulation.

Before long the rope was taut once more, and Steve's sense of security
was in such marked and delightful contrast to his feelings when it
slackened that he told Sarah Maria repeatedly to t