The Master-Knot of Human Fate | Page 7

and wheat
came up there were almost no weeds, and the stand was better than
usual for sod land; but they were kept busy warding off the horses and
cattle that preferred the fresh young corn and wheat to the indifferent
natural grass.
"I thought," she said wearily, after driving away the intruders for the
third time,--"I thought fences were a sign of civilization, but they seem
to be the first necessity of the wilderness."
She was sitting on a rock, fanning her flushed face with her sombrero,
when Adam came to her assistance.
"You should have waited," he said. "I was coming, but I had to hitch
the team." He turned and looked at her, and laughed boyishly. "The run
hasn't hurt you," he said; "you look like a wild rose. I believe I shall
call you so; may I? I can't call you by the old name."
She colored hotly, then turned quite pale, and there was a touch of
reserve in her voice as she answered rather too indifferently, "If you
choose, still I think, O Adam Crusoe, that Friday or Robinson would be
a better name."
"We'll compromise on Robin," he said. "A rose by any other name is
just as sweet."
"I wish we had a fence," she said turning the subject hastily.
"We have," he answered. "If we were to build one ourselves, it would
have to be of rocks, but Nature has provided a magnificent stone barrier.
We have only to drive the animals we are not using through the
gateway, and fasten that little wooden concern after them. There is
good pasture outside, and if we need them we can go after them. Lassie

will look after Daisy and Lily, won't you, little dog? I will go and open
the gate and drive them through. You help Lassie keep those two back."
She stood undecidedly, and he turned and said gently, "I will come
back without passing through the gateway. I will never pass it without
you. I wouldn't dare. Now see how nicely Lassie will conduct this
round-up."
As he went toward the gateway, her eyes followed him with a look he
would hardly have comprehended, it was so full of relief and gratitude.
He understood and reassured her without noticing her fears or smiling
at her weakness. Every day and many times she thanked God that, of all
the men who might have been left by this modern deluge, it was Adam
who had been with her and was with her in this terrible experience.

III
It might be months, or years, or days, I kept no count,--I took no note.
BYRON.

They had been on the island nearly four months. The corn was waving
in the soft breeze, and the sun shone down hotly. Indoors sweet corn
was boiling in the same pot with new potatoes, while in an improvised
milk-boiler on coals, at one side of the fireplace, peas were simmering.
The table was spread, and there was white bread and jersey butter and
raspberries. Adam, with Lassie's puppies crawling over him, sat in the
doorway, and watched Robin put the finishing touches to their Sunday
dinner.
His apparel was somewhat picturesque, and he had a brown and
thoroughly healthy look. Robin was dressed in a costume of blue
denims. The skirt was rather short, and the waist was a blouse, finished
at the throat with a broad collar that turned away from a neck still white
in spite of much sunlight. Their months of roughing it had not harmed

them, and only the intense sadness in Adam's eyes, the pathetic droop
of Robin's mouth, when they thought themselves unobserved, told a
story different from that of pastoral content.
Their meal was unusually silent. Sometimes they fell into long lapses
of silence; there was so much not to say. In all the weeks of the past
they had worked, almost feverishly, allowing as little time as possible
for thought, and never speaking of what was oftenest in their minds.
Much of the time Adam seemed to be in a dream, only half realizing
the flight of time, that made hope more and more hopeless. Robin said
nothing. One would not seek to console the sky with phrases if all the
stars were wiped out. She half reproached herself at times for the peace,
the something akin to happiness, that had crept into her life. She had
long before grown very weary of the world and all it had to offer.
She was stung at the sight of Adam's quiet face, with the repressed
suffering that had somehow touched it with a beauty it had not
possessed, and she said impetuously, "Let us go out, Adam; let us go
quite away somewhere, and talk. There is so much I