Hiram had already given a second glance. He saw a slim, prettily dressed figure with a flower-like face under a shade hat. For a half minute or so the boy had no idea who this person could be. He only realized that she was a very pretty girl. And then Miss Pringle's companion smiled. Hiram fairly jumped. "Sister!" he shouted, and strode down the hill to meet the dappled pony. At that moment he heard a wild yell from Yancey Battick. The man came running along the lower edge of the field. He bore high above his head a handful of the grain which he had torn up by the roots. His lean face was actually pale. "Strong! Look here! They've got us!" he cried. "Who has got us? What is the matter?" demanded Hiram, startled into forgetting Sister and her wonderful appearance for the moment. "What's turned that wheat in your hand yellow so early?" "Do you see it? Do you see it?" shouted the excited Battick. "It's being eaten alive! Little green bugs--not the Hessian fly. It is a pest I never saw before. It wasn't there the other day. I tell you, they've got us!" concluded the man in a hopeless tone of voice. CHAPTER XXVI THE FIGHT FOR THE WHEAT "What's the matter now, Hiram Strong?" demanded Miss Pringle, urging her pony nearer. "For the land's sake! is that Battick man completely crazy?" "Oh, Hiram! what has happened?" called Sister. She jumped over the wheel and ran to greet the young farmer. A year previous Hiram would certainly have met Sister with a hug and a kiss! But this tall, pretty, almost grown-up girl was an entirely different person from the child he had known and first remembered as the boarding-house slavey in Crawberry. She was almost a stranger to him. "Sister! What a surprise! How nice you look!" he cried, seizing both her hands and gazing into her glowing eyes with fully as much delight as she herself displayed. "What a surprise!" he repeated. "Oh, Hiram, I'm so glad you're glad to see me!" "Of course I am! And Mother Atterson?" "She is fine. And so is Mr. Camp. And Henry Pollock. And everybody!" "How did you ever come out here without letting me know?" "Miss Pringle did it all. I am going to stay with her. You'll have to thank her if you are glad to see me, Hiram." "I should say I am! Delia, you are a darling!" cried Hiram, laughing up into the good but homely face of the spinster. At this juncture the almost breathless Battick reached the roadside. "Here! What's the matter with you, Strong?" he demanded, shaking the handful of wheatstraw at the young farm manager. "Do you hear what I say--or have you gone crazy over those women? That wheat is being eaten alive." "Oh!" exclaimed Sister looking wonderingly at the excited Yancey Battick. Miss Pringle scrambled down from the carriage. They gathered about the young farmer while he examined the affected heads of wheat.