sooner go."

"Well, then, why don't you come?" I asked; and the big man hesitated
still, inspecting his boots, until, facing round toward me, he said: "I've
been figuring it mightn't be good for me. I'm a plain man with a liking
for straight talk, Ralph--so are you--and it might make things easier if I
were to tell you. It's Miss Aline that scared me."

I burst out laughing, but Jasper did not join; then I waited somewhat
astonished until he continued: "She's the flower of this prairie, and
she's got a mighty cute head of her own. I never could stand them foolish
women. So I came, and I would have come every day, until Harry chipped in,
and that set me thinking. I said, 'You stop there and consider, Jasper,
before it's too late, and you're done for.'"

I frowned at this, but Jasper added: "You don't get hold exactly--what I
meant was this: I'm a big rough farmer, knowing the ways of wheat and the
prairie, and knowing nothing else. She's wise, and good, and pretty, way
up as high as the blue heaven above me. Even if she'd take me--which,
being wise, she wouldn't--the deal wouldn't be fair to her. No; it
couldn't anyway be fair to her. Then I saw Harry with his clever talk and
pretty ways, and I said, 'That's the kind of man that must mate with her.
Go home to your plowing, Jasper, before it becomes harder, and you make a
most interesting fool of yourself.' So I went home, and I'm going to stop
there, Ralph Lorimer, until the right man comes along. Then--well, I'll
wish Miss Aline the happiness I could never have given her."

"You are a very good fellow, Jasper," I said, and pitied my old friend as
he departed ruefully. He had acted generously, and though I hardly fancy
Aline would have accepted him, in any case, I knew that she might have
chosen worse. There are qualities which count for more than the graces of
polish and education, especially in new lands, but Harry possessed these
equally, and, as Jasper had said, Aline and he had much more in common.
Then it also occurred to me that there was some excuse for Colonel
Carrington. The cases were almost parallel, and to use my friend's simile
Grace Carrington was also as high as the blue heavens above her accepted
lover. Still, if I had not the Ontario man's power of self-abnegation, and
had forgotten what was due to her, she had said with her own lips that she
could be happy with me, and I blessed her for it.

What transpired at Lone Hollow also provided food for tho