top.

"Her!" ejaculated the Harvester. "What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen you bathe anywhere except in the lake since I have been
here," said the carpenter. "Do you want me to think that a porcelain
tub, this big closet, and chest of drawers are for you?"

A wave of crimson swept over the Harvester.

"No, they are not for me," he said simply. "I don't want to be any more
different from other men than I can help, although I know that life in
the woods, the rigid training of my mother, and the reading of only the
books that would aid in my work have made me individual in many of my
thoughts and ways. I suppose most men, just now, would tell you anything
you want to know. There is only one thing I can say: The best of my soul
and brain, the best of my woods and store-house, the best I can buy with
money is not good enough for her. That's all. For myself, I am getting
ready to marry, of course. I think all normal men do and that it is a
matter of plain common-sense that they should. Life with the right woman
must be infinitely broader and better than alone. Are you married?"

"Yes. Got a wife and four children."

"Are you sorry?"

"Sorry!" the carpenter shrilled the word. "Sorry! Well that's the best
I ever heard! Am I sorry I married Nell and got the kids? Do I look
sorry?"

"I am not expecting to be, either," said the Harvester calmly. "I think
I have done fairly well to stick to my work and live alone until I am
twenty-six. I have thought the thing all over and made up my mind. As
soon as I get this house far enough along that I feel I can proceed
alone I am going to rush the marrying business just as fast as I can,
and let her finish the remainder to her liking."

"Well this ought to please her."

"That's because you find your own work good," laughed the Harvester.

"Not altogether!" The carpenter polished the board and stood it on end
to examine the surface as he talked. "Not altogether! Nothing but good
work would suit you. I was thinking of the little creek splashing down
the hill to the lake; and that old log hewer said that in a few more
days things here would be a blaze of colour until fall."

"Almost all the drug plants and bushes leaf beautifully and flower
brilliantly," explained the Harvester. "I studied the location suitable
to each variety before I set the beds and planned how to grow plants
for continuity of bloom, and as much harmony of colour as possible.
Of course a landscape gardener wo