ed.

"You said that one was to tell him that you loved him and you knew it
would bring him to you. But he never came."

"It's a way my princes have of doing," Leigh said with a little laugh.

"If I were in China and you should send me a sunflower, I'd know you
wanted me to come back."

"If I ever send you one you will know that I do," Leigh said. "Meantime,
my prince will wear a sprig of alfalfa on his coat."

"And a cockle burr in his whiskers, and cerulean blue overalls like mine,
and he'll drudge along in a slow scrap with the soil till the soil gets
him," Thaine added.

"Like it got your father," Leigh commented.

"Oh, he's just one sort of a man by himself," Thaine declared. "A pretty
good sort, of course, else I'd never have recommended him to be my father.
Good-by. I'll see you across the crowd tomorrow."

He turned at once and left her.

"The Cottonwoods" was a picturesque little grove grown in the last decade
about a rocky run down which in the springtime a full stream swept. There
was only a little ripple over a stony bed now, with shallow pools lost in
the deeper basins here and there. The grasses lay flat and brown on the
level prairie about it. Down the shaded valley a light cool breeze poured
steadily. Beyond the stream a gentle slope reached far away to the foot of
the three headlands--the purple notches of Thaine Aydelot's childhood
fancies.

The day was ideal. Such days come sometimes in a Kansas August. The young
people of the Grass River neighborhood had made merry half of the morning
in the grove, and as they gathered for the picnic lunch someone called
out:

"Jo Bennington, where's Thaine Aydelot? Great note for him to disappear
when this Charity Ball was executed mainly for him."

"Better ask Todd Stewart. He's probably had Thaine kidnaped for this
occasion," somebody else suggested.

"I tried to do it and failed," Todd Stewart assented. "I don't need him in
my business. He can start to school today if he wants to."

"Well, you don't want him to go, do you, Jo?"

"Oh, I don't care especially. I'm going away myself, but not to the
University, but I'm not going till papa's elected," Jo replied.

"And if papa's defeated we stay home all winter, eh?" Todd questioned.

"That all depends," Jo replied.

"Of course it does. What is it, and who depends on it? Jo, I'll help you
if you must defend yourself."

Thaine Aydelot bounced down from the rocky bank above into the midst of
the c