r and looked down with a smile.

"It's almost two miles to the homestead. If you could manage to climb up
I could make you a comfortable place," he said.

Agatha held her hands up with one foot upon a spoke of the wheels as
Wyllard leaned down, and next moment she was lifted upwards. She felt
his supporting hand upon her waist. Then she found herself standing upon
a narrow ledge, clutching at the hay while he tore out several big
armfuls of it and flung it back upon the top of the load.

[Illustration: "THE NEXT MOMENT SHE WAS LIFTED UPWARDS" (Page 146)]

"Now," he announced, "I guess you'll find that a snug enough nest."

She sank into it with a sense of physical satisfaction. The grass was
soft and warm; it was scented with the aromatic odors of wild
peppermint, and it yielded like a downy cushion beneath her limbs.
Still, she was just a little uneasy in mind, for she fancied that she
had seen a sudden sign of feeling in Wyllard's face when he had held her
for a moment on the ledge of the wagon. She glanced at him and was
reassured. He was looking straight before him with unwavering eyes, and
his face was set and quiet. Neither of them spoke until the team moved
on. Then he turned to her.

"You won't be jolted much," he assured her. "They've been at it since
four o'clock this morning."

"That," replied Agatha, "must mean that you rose at three."

Wyllard smiled. "As a matter of fact, it was half-past two. There was no
dew last night, and we started early. I've several extra teams this
year, and there's a good deal of hay to cut. Of course, we have to get
it in the sloughs or any damp place where it's long. We don't sow grass,
and we have no meadows like those there are in England."

Agatha understood that he meant to talk about matters of no particular
consequence, as he usually did. She had noticed a vein of poetic
imagination in him, and his idea that she had been with him through the
snow of the lonely ranges and the gloom of the great forests of the
Pacific slope appealed to her. Since the day when he told her that he
loved her he had spoken only of commonplace subjects. Sitting close
beside him in the hay she decided to let him talk about his farm, while
she listened half-absently.

"But you have a foreman who could see the teams turned out, haven't
you?" she asked, going back to the subject of his early rising.

"I had, but he left me three or four days ago. It's a pity, since I've
taken up rather mo