IV

THE CALL OF THE SUNFLOWER

Sons and daughters of the prairie,
Dreaming, dreaming,
Of the starry nights that vary,
Gleaming, gleaming!
You may wander o'er your country where the vales and mountains be,
You may dwell in lands far distant, out beyond the surging sea.
But ah! just a yellow sunflower, though across the world you roam,
Will take you back to Kansas and the sun-kissed fields of home.
--Nancy Parker.

Thaine Aydelot sat with Doctor Carey and Pryor Gaines in the latter's home
in the Foreign Compound in Peking.

"I have done my work here," Pryor was saying. "I have only one wish--to go
back to old Grass River in Kansas and spend my days with Jim Shirley. We
two will both live to be old because we are useless; and Leigh will be
marrying one of these times, if the Lord ever made a man good enough for
her. So Jim and I can chum along down the years together."

"It is the place for you, Pryor," Doctor Carey asserted. "And now that the
ranch is making money while Jim sleeps, you two will be happy and busy as
bees. Every neighborhood needs a man or two without family ties. You'll be
the most useful citizens in that corner of the prairies. And think of
eating Jim Shirley's cooking after this."

"And you, Thaine? What now?" Pryor asked as he looked fondly at the young
battle-tried soldier.

"I have done my work here," Thaine quoted his words. "I've only one
wish--to go back to old Grass River in Kansas to take my place on the
prairie and win the soil to its best uses; to do as good a work as my
father has done."

Thaine's dark eyes were luminous with hopefulness, and if a line of pathos
for a loss in his life that nothing could fill had settled about his firm
mouth, it took nothing from the manliness of the strong young face.

"And you, Carey?" Pryor asked.

Doctor Carey did not reply at once. A strange weariness had crept over his
countenance, and a far-away look was in his eyes. The man who had
forgotten himself in his service for others was coming swiftly toward his
reward. But neither of his friends noted the change now. At last he said:

"Years ago I loved a girl as I never could care for any other girl. She
would have loved me sooner or later if something hadn't happened. A
message from the man she cared for most fell into my hands one day long
ago: a withered flower and a little card. I could have kept them