It developed then that Adams had walked along with the machine, and he
now addressed her.
"Will you be staying here till your father comes?" he asked.
"No, Mr. Adams. Why do you ask?"
"You oughtn't come out here alone or go back alone.... All these strange
men! Some of them hard customers! You'll excuse me, miss, but this
harvest is not like other harvests."
"I'll wait for my father and I'll not go out of sight," replied Lenore.
Thanking the foreman for his thoughtfulness, she walked away, and soon
she stood at the edge of the first wheat-field.
The grain was not yet ripe but near at hand it was a pale gold. The
wind, out of the west, waved and swept the wheat, while the almost
imperceptible shadows followed.
A road half overgrown with grass and goldenrod bordered the wheat-field,
and it wound away down toward the house. Her father appeared mounted on
the white horse he always rode. Lenore sat down in the grass to wait for
him. Nodding stalks of goldenrod leaned to her face. When looked at
closely, how truly gold their color! Yet it was not such a gold as that
of the rich blaze of ripe wheat. She was admitting to her consciousness
a jealousy of anything comparable to wheat. And suddenly she confessed
that her natural love for it had been augmented by a subtle growing
sentiment. Not sentiment about the war or the need of the Allies or
meaning of the staff of life. She had sensed young Dorn's passion for
wheat and it had made a difference to her.
"No use lying to myself!" she soliloquized. "I think of him!.. I can't
help it... I ran out here, wild, restless, unable to reason... just
because I'd decided to see him again--to make sure I--I really didn't
care.... How furious--how ridiculous I'll feel--when--when--"
Lenore did not complete her thought, because she was not sure. Nothing
could be any truer than the fact that she had no idea how she would
feel. She began sensitively to distrust herself. She who had always been
so sure of motives, so contented with things as they were, had been
struck by an absurd fancy that haunted because it was fiercely
repudiated and scorned, that would give her no rest until it was proven
false. But suppose it were true!
A succeeding blankness of mind awoke to the clip-clop of hoofs and her
father's cheery halloo.
Anderson dismounted and, throwing his bridle, he sat down heavily beside
her.
"You can ride back home," he said.
Lenore knew she had been reproved for her wandering out there, and she
made a motion to rise. His big hand held her down.
"No hurry, now I'm here. Grand day, ain't it? An' I see the barley's
goin'. Them sacks look good to me."
Lenore waited with some perturbation. She had a guilty conscience and
she feared he meant to quiz her about her sudden change of front
regarding the Bend trip. So she could not look up and she could not say
a word.
"Jake says that Nash has been tryin' to make up to you. Any sense in
what he says?" asked her father, bluntly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account