f Samuel
Foster Crittenden, I told myself, while I walked along behind him as he
held the coral-strung buck-bushes out of my path; but my knees did
tremble, and my teeth chattered so that I felt sure he would hear them.

For a long moment Sam stood in front of the shack and looked out over to
Paradise Ridge. I knew that now was the time for me to marshal up my
defense and demand to be put on the same footing in life with those
peasant women sleeping below us beside the covered camp-fires.

"What right has any man to say that a woman shall not plow and sow and
reap and dig if she wants to, and especially if it is so much in her
blood that she can't keep away from it?" I was just getting ready to
demand. Then suddenly Sam sobbed, choked, sobbed again, and reached out
his arms to fold me in against the sobs so closely that I could feel
them rising out of his very heart.

"Betty, Betty," he fairly groaned, with his face pressed close to mine.
A tear wet my cheek, larger and warmer than the ones which were
beginning to drip from my own eyes.

"I can't help it, Sam," I sobbed. "I will be just as good as any of the
other women; but I want a--a mule and twenty acres here with you. I
don't feel safe anywhere else. I might starve, away from you."

And then, very quietly, very surely, I found out what it was I had been
hungry for and thirsty for, what it was I had been used to having fed me
ever since I could remember--it was Sam's love. He held me close, then
closer for a long second--and then he pressed his lips on mine until I
knew what it was to feel--fed.

"My woman," he said, when at last I turned my face away for breath and
to get room to raise my arms around his neck and hold on tight until I
could get used to being certain that he was there.

"I tried to let you give me away, Sam, but I couldn't," I said, with a
dive into the breast of his overalls, which had that glorious barn and
field--was it cosmic he told me to call it?--smell.

"When I've loved you a little longer I'm going to shake the life out of
you for this mix-up," said Sam, hollowing his long arms and breast still
deeper to fold me fast.

"I--I held Peter's hand all during that long play-making, and I can't
stand it any longer," I said, squirming still closer and hiding my
abashed eyes under his chin.

"Just hold my heart awhile now," Sam answered, as he sank down on the
door-sill of the shack and cradled me close and warm, safe from the
little chi