s I balanced the dainty
China cup it reminded me of the battered kettle from which we filled the
blackened cans in a British Columbian camp. There, instead of embroidered
curtains, were festoons of cedar sprays, biting cold and acrid wood-smoke
in place of warmth and artistic luxury, and I knew that I had been favored
greatly--for though many strive, the victory is to the few. Still, from
out of the shadows of the somber firs, I seemed to hear our partner who
lay among the boulders say: "The long, long road has a turning, and there
is rest at last."

Before I left the Manor late that night all was settled, for when I
pressed for an early conclusion Grace, yielding, said: "I am not afraid of
poverty, Ralph; and if it comes we will lighten it by each bearing half.
So we will take the risk of the harvest together, for if I share in your
prosperity I must also take my share in the hardship."

I did not get home to Fairmead until the next day, for I nodded in the
saddle until I could not see the way, and several times nearly fell out of
it, and when the tired horse stopped on a bluff I found a couch in
withered fern and slept there soundly, to waken long after sunrise, wet
with dew. That, however, was a trifling matter on the Western prairie,
because the man who loves small comforts has no business there, and after
the events of the previous day discomfort was nothing to me. Dreams seldom
trouble the toiler in that land; and when I stood up refreshed under the
early sunlight, and memory returned, the world seemed filled with light
and beauty to reflect my own gladness. Ormond's horse was cropping the
grasses not far away, and when I caught him the very birch leaves rustled
joyfully under their tender shimmering green as we rode over the bluff,
while once out on the prairie a flight of sand-hill cranes came up from
the south, calling to one another, dazzling blurs of whiteness against the
blue, and even their hoarse cry seemed to ring with triumph.

Aline ran out to meet me when I dismounted, and my mood must have been
infectious, for she smiled as she greeted me.

"I sent Harry to scour the prairie in search of you, for I feared you must
have been dead tired and the horse had fallen in a ravine. But you must
have slept among the fairies, Ralph, and risen transfigured. You look too
radiant for my serious brother."

It was after hay-time, and the wheat was tall and green, when Grace and I
were married in the little wooden