tched him, agape with interest, as he wrote at the
sitting-room table, and hung at his heels, happy and fascinated, when he
walked up and down, smoking a cigar, under the ash trees in the
twilight.

On the other hand, the big brothers respected him less than ever. To
them flower-hunting, as an occupation, seemed trivial and effeminate.
Flowers, though they were well enough in their proper places,--the front
garden or the grass,--were usually a nuisance that crept through the
crops and choked their growth, until descended upon and tediously jerked
up, one after another, by the roots. And a man who could give his entire
time not only to the collection of nosegays but to the gathering of
_weeds_, could not have the esteem of the big brothers. All three,
whenever they spoke of him, raised their shoulders contemptuously, after
the manner of "Frenchy."

It was not long, however, before their attitude changed. The professor
was so gentle and courteous, yet so firm and convincing, and so full of
knowledge concerning things about them of which they were entirely
ignorant, that they soon came to view him seriously. The eldest and the
youngest brothers even took turns at driving him on long trips in the
buckboard, and the biggest loaned him a pair of rubber boots so that he
could hunt in swamps and wet meadows for bristly buttercups and
crowfoot.

After she found out that he was a professor, the little girl always
accompanied him on his jaunts. Before that, the herd being in the care
of the Swede boy, she spent the days either in skilfully outlining on a
wide board, by means of a carpenter's pencil and an overturned milk-pan,
cart-wheels for the box of the little red wagon, or in playing
"Pilgrim's Progress," seated on an empty grain-sack which Bruno,
snarling with delight, dragged by his teeth along the reservation road
from the Slough of Despond to the gates of the Celestial City. She also
helped her mother prepare for the coming Fourth of July celebration at
the station.

But she gave up everything to go with the professor while he scoured the
prairie to the north, east, and south, and burdened herself willingly
with the lunch-bucket and his umbrella. From dawn till noon, for a whole
fortnight, she trotted beside him, straining her eyes to catch sight of
some plant he had not yet seen, and tearing here and there to pluck
posies for his bouquet. When, however, there remained to be searched
only a wide strip bordering the Ve