to me how farmers have patience to work there."

Annie opened her eyes. There was evidently more than one way of looking
at a question. The farm-houses seemed very low and mean to her, as she
looked at them from the window. There were no fences, excepting now
and then the inhospitable barbed wire. The door-yards were bleak to her
eyes, without the ornamental shrubbery which every farmer in her part
of the country was used to tending. The cattle stood unshedded in their
corrals. The reapers and binders stood rusting in the dull drizzle.

"How shiftless!" cried Annie, indignantly. "What do these men mean by
letting their machinery lie out that way? I should think one winter of
lying out would hurt it more than three summers of using."

"It does. But sheds are not easily had. Lumber is dear."

"But I should think it would be economy even then."

"Yes," he said, "perhaps. But we all do that way out here. It takes
some money for a man to be economical with. Some of us haven't even that
much."

There was a six-mile ride from the station. The horses were waiting,
hitched up to a serviceable light wagon, and driven by the "help." He
was a thin young man, with red hair, and he blushed vicariously for Jim
and Annie, who were really too entertained with each other, and at the
idea of the new life opening up before them, to think anything about
blushing. At the station, a number of men insisted on shaking hands
with Jim, and being introduced to his wife. They were all bearded, as
if shaving were an unnecessary labor, and their trousers were tucked in
dusty top-boots, none of which had ever seen blacking. Annie had a sense
of these men seeming unwashed, or as if they had slept in their clothes.
But they had kind voices, and their eyes were very friendly. So she
shook hands with them all with heartiness, and asked them to drive out
and bring their womenkind.

"I am going to make up my mind not to be lonesome," she declared; "but,
all the same, I shall want to see some women."

Annie had got safe on the high seat of the wagon, and was balancing her
little feet on the inclined foot-rest, when a woman came running across
the street, calling aloud,--

"Mr. Lancy! Mr. Lancy! You're not going to drive away without
introducing me to your wife!"

She was a thin little woman, with movements as nervous and as graceless
as those of a grasshopper. Her dun-colored garments seemed to have all
the hue bleached out of them with wind and w