ents a bushel," replied
Dorn.

"Good! But he ought to have waited. The government will set a higher
price.... How much will that come to, Lenore?"

Dorn's smile, as he watched Lenore do her mental arithmetic, attested to
the fact that he already had figured out the sum.

"Eighty-six thousand four hundred dollars," replied Lenore. "Is that
right?"

"An' you'll have thirty thousand dollars left after all debts are paid?"
inquired Anderson.

"Yes, sir. I can hardly realize it. That's a fortune--for one section of
wheat. But we've had four bad seasons.... Oh, if it only rains to-day!"

Lenore turned her cheek to the faint west wind. And then she looked long
at the slowly spreading clouds, white and beautiful, high up near the
sky-line, and dark and forbidding down along the horizon.

"I knew a girl who could feel things move when no one else could," said
Lenore. "I'm sensitive like that--at least about wind and rain. Right
now I can feel rain in the air."

"Then you have brought me luck," said Dorn, earnestly. "Indeed I guess
my luck has turned. I hated the idea of going away with that debt
unpaid."

"Are you--going away?" asked Lenore, in surprise.

"Yes, rather," he replied, with a short, sardonic laugh. He fumbled in a
pocket of his overalls and drew forth a paper which he opened. A flame
burned the fairness from his face; his eyes darkened and shone with
peculiar intensity of pride. "I was the first man drafted in this Bend
country.... My number was the first called!"

"Drafted!" echoed Lenore, and she seemed to be standing on the threshold
of an amazing and terrible truth.

"Lass, we forget," said her father, rather thickly.

"Oh, but--why?" cried Lenore. She had voiced the same poignant appeal to
her brother Jim. Why need he--why must he go to war? What for? And Jim
had called out a bitter curse on the Germans he meant to kill.

"Why?" returned Dorn, with the sad, thoughtful shadow returning to his
eyes. "How many times have I asked myself that?... In one way, I don't
know.... I haven't told father yet!... It's not for his sake.... But
when I think deeply--when I can feel and see--I mean I'm going for my
country.... For you and your sisters."

Like a soldier then Lenore received her mortal blow facing him who dealt
it, and it was a sudden overwhelming realization of love. No confusion,
no embarrassment, no shame attended the agony of that revelation.
Outwardly she did not seem to change at all. She