or now in his second year they were still baffled by
his general admiration and undivided indifference toward all of them. His
eager face as he came striding up the driveway to meet Leigh Shirley would
have been a revelation to them.

"I 'happened' last night, too late to-wake up the dog," Thaine exclaimed.
"I happened to run against Dr. Carey, who had a hurry-up call down this
way, and he happened to drop me at the Sunflower Inn. He's coming by for
breakfast at my urgent demand. This country night practice is enough to
kill a doctor. His hair is whiter than ever, young as he is. He said he is
going to take a trip out West and have a vacation right soon. I told him
all my plans. You can tell him anything, you know. And, besides, I'm
hoping he will beat me to the house this morning and will tell the folks
I'm here."

"Doesn't your mother know you are here?" Leigh asked.

"Not yet. I wanted to come down early and tell the lake good-by. I have to
leave again in a few hours."

The old impenetrable expression had dropped over his face with the words.
And nobody knows why the sunshine grew dull and the birds' songs dropped
to busy twittering about unimportant things.

"Do you always tell it good-by?" Leigh asked, because she could think of
nothing else to say.

"Not always, but this time it's different. I'm so glad I found you. I
should have gone down to Cloverdale, of course, if you hadn't been here,
but this saves time."

A pink wave swept Leigh's cheek, but she smiled a pleasant recognition of
his thoughtfulness.

"I've come home to say good-by because I'm going to enlist in the first
Kansas regiment that goes to Cuba to fight the Spaniards. And I must hurry
back to Lawrence."

"Oh, Thaine! What do you mean?"

Leigh's face was very white.

"Be careful!"

Thaine caught her arm in time to save the light easel from being thrown
over.

"Don't look at me that way, Leigh. Don't you know that President McKinley
has declared war and has called for one hundred and twenty-five thousand
volunteers? Four or five thousand from old Kansas. Do you reckon we
Jayhawkers will wait till one hundred and twenty thousand have enlisted
and trail in on the last five thousand? It would be against all traditions
of the rude forefathers of the Sunflower State."

"Has war really been declared? We haven't had the papers for nearly a
week. Everybody is so busy with farm work right now."

Leigh stood looking anxiously at Thaine.

"