er in life than even these?

Often he would go to his old friend in the Hollow with some
thought, and the shepherd, seeing how it was, would smile as he
helped the lad on his way. The scholar looked forward with
confidence to the time when young Matt would discover for himself,
as Sammy had found for herself, that the only common ground
whereon men and women may meet in safety is the ground of their
manhood and womanhood.

And so it was, on that spring morning when the young giant felt
the red life throbbing strongly in his great limbs, as he followed
his team to and fro across the field. And in his voice, as he
shouted to his horses at the end of the furrow, there was
something under the words, something of a longing, something also
of a challenge.

Sammy was going to spend the day with her friends on Jake Creek.
She had not been to see Mandy since the night of her father's
death. As she went, she stopped at the lower end of the field to
shout a merry word to the man with the plow, and it was sometime
later when the big fellow again started his team. The challenge in
his tone had grown bolder.

Sammy returned that afternoon in time for the evening meal, and
Aunt Mollie thought, as the girl came up the walk, that the young
woman had never looked so beautiful. "Why, honey," she said,
"you're just a bubblin' over with life. Your cheeks are as rosy;
your eyes are as sparklin', you're fairly shinin' all over. Your
ride sure done you good."

The young woman replied with a hug that made her admirer gasp.
"Law, child; you're strong as a young panther. You walk like one
too; so kind of strong, easy like."

The girl laughed. "I hope I don't impress everybody that way, Aunt
Mollie. I don't believe I want to be like a panther. I'd rather be
like--like--"

"Like what, child?"

"Like you, just like you; the best, the very best woman in the
whole world, because you've got the best and biggest heart." She
looked back over her shoulder laughing, as she ran into the house.

When Young Matt came in from the field, Sammy went out to the
barn, while he unharnessed his team. "Are you very tired to-
night?" she asked.

The big fellow smiled, "Tired? Me tired? Where do you want to go?
Haven't you ridden enough to-day? I should think you'd be tired
yourself."

"Tired? Me tired?" said the girl. "I don't want to ride. I want to
walk. It's such a lovely evening, and there's going to be a moon.
I have been thinking all day that I