ose and returned to the cabin. He
carried a few frosty, blue-green leaves of velvet softness and unusual
cutting, prickly thorn apples full of seeds, and some of the smoother,
more yellowish-green leaves of the jimson weed, to give excuse for his
absence.

"Don't touch them," he warned as he came to her. "They are poison
and have disagreeable odour. But we are importing them for medicinal
purposes. On the far side of the marsh, where the ground rises, there
is a waste place just suited to them, and so long as they will seed
and flourish with no care at all, I might as well have the price as
the foreign people who raise them. They don't bring enough to make them
worth cultivating, but when they grow alone and with no care, I can make
money on the time required to clip the leaves and dry the seeds. I must
go wash before I come close to you."

The next day he had business in the city, and again she lay in the swing
and talked to the dog while the Harvester was gone. She was startled as
Belshazzar arose with a gruff bark. She looked down the driveway, but no
one was coming. Then she followed the dog's eyes and saw a queer,
little old woman coming up the bank of Singing Water from the north. She
remembered what the Harvester had said, and rising she opened the screen
and went down the path. As the Girl advanced she noticed the scrupulous
cleanliness of the calico dress and gingham apron, and the snowy hair
framing a bronzed face with dancing dark eyes.

"Are you David's new wife?" asked Granny Moreland with laughing
inflection.

"Yes," said the Girl. "Come in. He told me to expect you. I am so sorry
he is away, but we can get acquainted without him. Let me help you."

"I don't know but that ought to be the other way about. You don't look
very strong, child."

"I am not well," said the Girl, "but it's lovely here, and the air is
so fine I am going to be better soon. Take this chair until you rest a
little, and then you shall see our pretty home, and all the furniture
and my dresses."

"Yes, I want to see things. My, but David has tried himself! I heard
he was just tearin' up Jack over here, and I could get the sound of the
hammerin', and one day he asked me to come and see about his beddin'. He
had that Lizy Crofter to wash for him, but if I hadn't jest stood over
her his blankets would have been ruined. She's no more respect for
fine goods than a pig would have for cream pie. I hate to see woollens
abused, as if the