It was Elizabeth's turn to cheer up Aunt Susan, for she always fell into a gloom when she mentioned Nathan. It took Elizabeth's mind from her own affairs, and by the time the unpacking was finished the volatile spirits of youth had asserted themselves. They took a walk toward evening, and only returned in time to meet John Hunter, who had come to see his betrothed about a trip he had decided suddenly to take to Mitchell County. He had spoken of it to Elizabeth before, and had only waited to get his mother established and a desirable hired man to run the place in his absence. The man had come that day asking for work and giving good references and John had decided to go at once. In the excitement of preparation John seemed to have forgotten the discomforts of the morning, and though he soon took his departure, he left Elizabeth less unhappy than she had been. Nathan and the new man were coming in the distance as John Hunter drove away, and the girl turned back into the kitchen to help with the supper. * * * * * "Lizzie Farnshaw! And you are the Elizabeth these folk have been talkin' about? Well, I'll be hornswoggled!" Nathan and the new boarder had just come in. "Is it really you, Luther?" Elizabeth asked, and there was no mistaking the glad tones. They looked each other over for changes; they sat beside each other at the table, and Elizabeth asked questions and talked excitedly while he ate. "Your hair is darker, and it's curly," she remarked, remembering the tow-coloured locks cut square across the boyish, sunburned neck. Luther Hansen's face crinkled into fine lines and his blue-gray eyes laughed amusedly. "Got darker as I got older, Lizzie, an' th' typhoid put them girl-twists into th' ends of it. Bet you're a wishin' for it--all th' women folks do. Wish you had it." They went for a walk after supper and talked of many things. He was the same Luther, grown older and even more companionable. Elizabeth learned that both his parents had died, leaving the then seventeen-year-old boy a piece of land heavily mortgaged, and with nothing but a broken down team and a superannuated cow to raise the debt. By constant labour and self-denial the boy had lifted the financial load, and then happening to meet a man who owned this Kansas land had traded, with the hope that on the cheaper land he could reach out faster and get a good increase on the original price besides. "I remembered th' kind of land it was about here, an' didn't need t' come an' see it first," he said. "I was goin' t' hunt you up 'fore long, anyhow. I never thought of these folks a knowin' you, though, after I got here. Funny, ain't it? I'm right glad t' be back t' you," was his frank confession.