The Girl From Kellers | Page 9

it was thwarted was subject
to fits of rage. Reserve was not among her virtues, and Charnock's
languid carelessness sometimes attracted and sometimes annoyed her.
It marked him as different from the young men she knew and gave him
what she called tone, but it had drawbacks.
"Let me have the reins; I want to drive," she said, and added as the
horses trotted across the grass beside the torn-up trail: "You keep a
smart team, but they're too light for much work about the farm."
"That's so. Still, you see, I like fast horses."
"They have to be paid for," Sadie rejoined.
"Very true, but I don't want to talk about such matters now. Then I've
given up trying to make the farm pay. When you find a thing's
impossible, it's better to let it go."
Sadie did not reply. She meant to talk about this later, but preferred to
choose her time. Her education had been rudimentary, but she was
naturally clever. She liked admiration, but was not to be led into
foolishness by vanity. Sadie knew her value. It had for some time been
obvious that a number of the young farmers who dealt at the store and

frequented the hotel did so for her sake, and she was willing to extend
her father's trade. In fact, she helped to manage both businesses as
cleverly as she managed the customers. Her charm was largely physical,
but she used it with caution. One might indulge in banter, and Sadie
had a ringing laugh that young men liked, but there were limits that few
who knew her overstepped. One or two had done so, but had been
rebuked in a way they wished to forget. Sadie had the tricks of an
accomplished coquette, but something of the heart of a prude.
The settlement got indistinct, and crossing a low rise, they drove past a
birch bluff where the twigs were breaking into tiny points of green.
Then they forded a creek and skirted a shallow lake, from which a flock
of ducks rose and flew North in a straggling wedge. Sandhills gleamed
on the ridges, tall cranes stalked about the hollows, and when the team,
laboring through the loose soil, crossed an elevation one could see the
plain roll back into the far distance. It was sharp-cut to the horizon;
only the varying color that changed from soft blue to white and yellow
in the foreground helped the eye to gage its vast extent. The snow had
bleached the grass, which glittered like silver in the strong sunlight.
A boisterous wind from the North-west drove white-edged clouds
across the sky, but the air was soft with a genial warmth that drew
earthy smells from the drying sod. In places, an emerald flush had
begun to spread across the withered grass and small flowers like
crocuses were pushing through. The freshness and hint of returning life
reacted on Charnock, and stirred his blood when he glanced at his
companion. He felt her physical allurement as he had not felt it before,
but now and then he resolutely looked away. Sadie had shown him
marked favor, but there was much he might lose.
She would not have charmed him when he first came to the prairie with
romantic hopes and vague ambitions. He had been fastidious then, and
the image of a very different girl occupied his heart. Even now he knew
the other stood for all that was best in life; for tender romances, and
sweetness, and high purpose. Helen had gracious qualities he had once
half-reverently admired. She loved pictures and books and music, and
was marked by a calm serenity that was very different from Sadie's

restless force. But it looked as if he had lost her, and Sadie, who could
break a horse and manage a hotel, was nearer his level. Yet he hesitated;
he must choose one of two paths, and when he had chosen could not
turn back.
"You don't talk much," Sadie remarked at length. "Guess you must be
thinking about your mortgage."
"I was, in a way. It was rather useless and very rude. However, I won't
think of it again until somebody makes me."
"That's a way of yours. You think too late."
"I'm afraid I sometimes do so," Charnock admitted. "Anyhow, to-day,
I'm not going to think at all."
Sadie noted the reckless humor with which he began to talk, but she led
him on, and they engaged in cheerful banter until Long Lake began to
gleam among the woods ahead. Charnock skirted the trees and pulled
up where a number of picketed teams and rigs stood near the water's
edge. Farther along, a merry party was gathering wood to build a fire,
and Charnock did not find Sadie alone again for some