"You've all been mighty good to me. If it hadn't been for your father and Mr. Montgomery, I should have lost the farm. I'm better off than I ever expected to be and I owe it all to them. It's a big thing when a fellow's clear down and out to have helping hands like theirs. I don't know how to say these things, but I love you, Phil. You don't know what it has meant to know you--how thinking about you makes the day's work easier as I tramp these fields. I know I oughtn't to ask a girl like you to share a farmer's life, but I'll be so good to you, Phil! And I mean to go on and win. You've made the world a different place for me, Phil. I know what a poor clod I am, but I mean to study and to try and measure up to you." "Cut out that last proposition, Fred! I'm the harum-scarumest girl on earth and I know it. I'd be a real handicap to you, or any other man. Gracious! Why didn't you tell me you were going to make love to me and I'd have put on my other suit. I'll never forgive you for this, Fred Holton; it's taking an unkind advantage!" "I don't believe you think I mean it!" he cried despairingly, as her gaze wandered across the fields to the far horizon. "If I thought you didn't, I should never speak to you again," she declared severely, meeting his eyes. "The corn was glad When he had told his love. The evening star Chortled in joy. The cattle on the hills-- "Oh, come on, Fred, and let's stop foolishing!" "Please, Phil? If only you cared a little!" he pleaded forlornly. "A little! I care a whole lot about you! I respect you and admire you; and I suppose, to be real frank about it, I love you a little tiny bit. But as for marrying you or anybody else--that's different, oh, very different! You see, Fred," she continued, abruptly abandoning her half-chaffing tone, "the ice is too thin; it makes me shudder to think of it! Instead of people being settled when they get married, it seems to make them nervous. I'm going to study and work and work and _work_! I want to see what kind of a life I can build up for myself--and then I want to stand off and look at it--a good long look before I allow anybody else to have a share in it. That's all of that, Fred." "But, Phil."