to be frank."

"Oh, yes, but you must not believe that. I think the world of him. I
don't see how I could live without him. He is absolutely necessary to
me. But he wasn't my romance. And I am glad of it. I couldn't dream over
him if he were. But your story. It almost upsets me. Got on his horse
and rode away! It is evident that he didn't want a romance. What wise
man could have warned him against it? I am glad you told me, my dear. I
can be of a great deal of assistance to you. Suppose we go back to the
house. Well, well, you have given me a surprise."

CHAPTER XV.

WANTED THE HORSE.

The days were linked out into weeks; there had been rag-time music and
break-down dancing at Mrs. Stuvic's, but Milford had not shown himself.
A farmer passing late at night had looked through the window and had
seen him boxing with the hired man. Some one else had seen him sparring
with an Irishman in Antioch. The old woman swore that he was "going
daft." But it was noised around that he had threshed out nearly two
thousand bushels of oats, and this redeemed his standing. He had not
arrived in time to sow the oats, but the luck of the harvest had fallen
to him. The crop had been threatened with rust and the old woman advised
him to plow up the fields, but he had held out against her and was
rewarded, not alone with a surprising yield of grain, but with a
recognized right to exercise freedom of action, such as would not have
been tolerated in a man who had fallen short. A wise old skinflint
halted one day to ask his opinion of a bulky subscription book for which
he had paid one dollar down and signed notes for three more, payable, of
course, at times when money worries would buzz thickly about him. And
news came through the hired man that a young woman, thin of chest and
clumsy of foot, but worth a hundred acres, had set her cap for him.

"Of course, I wouldn't advise you to take her," said Mitchell, putting
on his necktie before a three-cornered fragment of a looking-glass, "but
I want to tell you that land's land out here. And besides, she might die
in a year or two. You never can tell. I may see her at church to-day.
She and my girl are sorter kin to each other. I'm a marryin' man,
myself. I don't see enough difference in married life or single life to
get scared at either one, so I take the marryin' side. A married man has
a place to keep away from and a single man hasn't any place to go to, so
it's all about the same, th