of the house. While he looked after her it seemed to him that the
wan November day grew radiant with colour, and that spring blossomed
suddenly, out of season, upon the landscape. His hour was upon him
when he turned and retraced his steps over the silver brook and up the
gradual slope, where the sun shone on the bare soil and revealed each
separate clod of earth as if it were seen under a microscope. All nature
was at one with him. He felt the flowing of his blood so joyously that
he wondered why the sap did not rise and mount upward in the trees.

In the yard Sarah was directing a negro boy, who was spreading a second
layer of manure over her more delicate plants. As Abel closed the gate,
she looked up, and the expression of his face held her eyes while he
came toward her.

"What has happened, Abel? You look like Moses when he came down from the
mountain."

"It was all wrong--what I told you last night, mother. Molly is going to
marry me."

"You mean she's gone an' changed her mind jest as you'd begun to git
along without her. I declar', I don't know what has got into you to show
so little sperit. If you were the man I took you to be, you'd up an' let
her see quick enough that you don't ax twice in the same quarter."

"Oh, all that's over now--she's going to marry me."

"You needn't shout so. I ain't deaf. Samson, sprinkle another spadeful
of manure on that bridal-wreath bush over thar by the porch."

"Won't you say you're pleased?"

"I ain't pleased, Abel, an' I ain't going to lie about it. When I git
down on my knees to-night, I'll pray harder than I ever prayed in my
life that you'll come to yo' senses an' see what a laughing-stock that
gal has made of you."

"Then I wish I hadn't told you."

"Well, I'd have knowed it anyhow--it's burstin' out of you. Where're you
goin' now? The time's gittin' on toward dinner."

"For my axe. I want to cut a little timber."

"What on earth are you goin' to cut timber at this hour for?"

"Oh, I feel like it, that's all. I want to try my strength."

Going into the kitchen, he came out a minute later with his axe on
his shoulder. As he crossed the log over the mill-stream, the spotted
fox-hound puppy waddled after him, and several startled rabbits peered
out from a clump of sassafras by the "worm" fence. Over the fence went
Abel, and under it, on his fat little belly, went Moses, the puppy. In
the meadow the life-everlasting shed a fragrant pollen in the sunshine,
a