He worked in a manner that accomplished much. There seemed no end to
his energy that morning. Despatching the usual routine, he gathered
the herbs that were ready, spread them on the shelves of the dry-house,
found time to do several things in the cabin, and polish a piece of
furniture before he ate his lunch and hitched Betsy to the wagon.
He also had recovered his voice, and talked almost incessantly as he
worked. When it neared time to start he dressed carefully. He stood
before his bookcase and selected several pamphlets published by the
Department of Agriculture. He went to his beds and gathered a large
arm load of plants. Then he was ready to make his first trip to see the
Dream Girl, but it never occurred to him that he was going courting.
He had decided fully that there would be no use to try to make love to
a girl manifestly so ill and in trouble. The first thing, it appeared to
him, was to dispel the depression, improve the health, and then do the
love making. So, in the most business-like manner possible and without
a shade of embarrassment, the Harvester took his herbs and books and
started for the Jameson woods. At times as he drove along he espied
something that he used growing beside the road and stopped to secure a
specimen.
He came down the river bank and reached the ginseng bed at half-past
one. He was purposely early. He laid down his books and plants,
and rolled the log on which she sat the day before to a more shaded
location, where a big tree would serve for a back rest. He pulled away
brush and windfalls, heaped dry brown leaves, and tramped them down
for her feet. Then he laid the books on the log, the arm load of plants
beside them, and went to the river to wash his soiled hands.
Belshazzar's short bark told him the Girl was coming, and between the
trees he saw the dog race to meet her and she bent to stroke his
head. She wore the same dress and appeared even paler and thinner. The
Harvester hurried up the bank, wiping his hands on his handkerchief.
“Glad to see you!” he greeted her casually. “I've fixed you a seat
with a back rest to-day. Don't be frightened at the stack of herbs. You
needn't gather all of those. They are only suggestions. They are just
common roadside plants that have some medicinal value and are worth
collecting. Please try my davenport.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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