He broke up a piece of board, split fine pieces with his knife, tore up a letter, and made a fire in the pan. In a shed-room he found a bench, dusted it, and brought it in for her. She sat down, and he stood looking at the play of the shadows and the light on her hair. The spirit of the cider was gone. He wondered why he had run down the road, laughing. He got down on his knees to feed the fire. It was a trick; it was stealing an attitude to pay a homage. "Mrs. Goodwin will be very much worried," she said. "I wish that I did not come. It was so much further than they said. I left when the sun was down. Now it is late, and I walked all the time." "I will run over there and bring the buggy for you." "Oh, no, no. The rain pours too much. When it is done I will go with you. The road is hard. There will be not much mud. We found many flowers in the woods to-day." "I saw you with an armful." "Did you see me wave at you when you stand on the high place in the oats?" "I did, but I was almost afraid to believe it." "Almost afraid? Why, what harm? There is no harm to wave a flower. Now it rains easier. It will soon quit." Never did a promised clearing of the sky so mock a man. He mended the fire, for, in his enraptured gazing, he had neglected it. He got up and looked out, to see a glimmer of the threatening moon and a star peeping from a nest of glinted cloud-wool. He returned and knelt near the fire-pan. "Is it clearing away?" she asked. "It's going to pour down." "But it is getting lighter." "I know, but another cloud is coming." "I may get home before the new rain falls." "No, I hear it in the woods off yonder." "If I run I may get to a house where some one lives." "The rain will catch you. A wind is behind it." "I don't hear the wind." "It is a low wind, but it will soon be high." "The smoke hurts my eyes. You have put on too much wood at once." "And we must stay till it burns out to keep the house from catching fire." "Oh, the moon is out. I must go now." "I will go with you." "Take me to the straight road, and then I will go alone." He took the pan between two sticks, and threw it far out upon the wet grass. A flock of sheep pattered by. "Sheep always run past a haunted house," he said, leading her to the road. "Is this place haunted?" she asked, looking back. "Yes, by a young man who drowned himself in the lake." "Why did he drown himself?" "On account of a young woman who lived here." She laughed at the cowboy's impromptu lie. "He was foolish to drown himself. Let us walk fast now. Mrs. Goodwin will be much afraid for me. Can you not walk faster?" When they reached the corners, where a broad road crossed their path, she turned to him and said: "I know where I am now. This is my road, and I am not far. I thank you ever so much, and I bid you good-night." She fled swiftly down the road, and he stood there long after she had faded from sight. CHAPTER VIII. THE GOSSIPERS.