s into her cheeks, and
her blue eyes sparkle, a man would be a stupid clod if he didn't look
with all his eyes and feel his heart a-thumping. That she should
change so wasn't in the bargain; neither was it that she should read
aloud in such sweet tones that a fellow'd like to listen to the
dictionary; nor that she should make the house and yard look as they
never did before, and, strangest of all, open my eyes to the fact that
apple trees bear flowers as well as pippins. I can't even go by a wild
posy in the lane without thinking she'd like it and see in it a sight
more than I once could. I've been taken in, as old Jonathan feared,"
he muttered, following out his fancy with a sort of grim humor. "She
isn't the woman I thought I was marrying at all, and I aint bound by my
agreement--not in my thoughts, anyhow. I'd have been in a nice scrape
if I'd taken my little affidavit not to think of her or look upon her
in any other light than that of housekeeper and butter maker. It's a
scary thing, this getting married with a single eye to business. See
where I am now! Hanged if I don't believe I'm in love with my wife,
and, like a thundering fool, I had to warn her against falling in love
with me! Little need of that, though. She hasn't been taken in, for
I'm the same old chap she married, and I'd be a mighty mean cuss if I
went to her and said, 'Here, I want you to do twice as much, a
hundred-fold as much as you agreed to.' I'd be a fool, too, for she
couldn't do it unless something drew her toward me just as I'm drawn
toward her."

Late in the afternoon he leaned on the handle of his corn plow, and, in
the consciousness of solitude, said aloud: "Things grow clear if you
think of them enough, and the Lord knows I don't think of much else any
more. It isn't her good qualities which I say over to myself a hundred
times a day, or her education, or anything of the kind, that draws me;
it's she herself. I like her. Why don't I say love her, and be
honest? Well, it's a fact, and I've got to face it. Here I am,
plowing out my corn, and it looks splendid for its age. I thought if I
could stay on the old place, and plant and cultivate and reap, I'd be
more than content, and now I don't seem to care a rap for the corn or
the farm either, compared with Alida; and I care for her just because
she is Alida and no one else. But the other side of this fact has an
ugly look. Suppose I'm disagreeable to her! When she married me