Page 18 (2/2)

"Reckon the boys 'druther ye stayed in town after dark," the other called

back; then, as the mare stumbled into a trot, "Well, coe's" The latter clause seeht intended with huhter of sylvan ti a joke Harkless nodded without the

least apprehension of his , and waved farewell as Bowlder finally

turned his attention to the mare When the flop, flop of her hoofs had

died out, the journalist realized that the day was silent no longer; it

was verging into evening

He dropped from the fence and turned his face toward town and supper He

felt the light and life about him; heard the clatter of the blackbirds

above hi bees hum by, and saw the vista of white road

and level landscape, frarove, a

vista of infinitely stretching fields of green, lined here and there with

woodlands and flat to the horizon line, the village lying in their lap No

roll of meadow, no rise of pasture land, relieved their serenity nor

shouldered up froreat flock of

blackbirds was settling down over the Plattvillein

the fair dome of the sky below the fehite clouds, it occurred to

Harkless that sood had inadvertently peppered his custard, and

now inverted and eantic blue dish upon the earth, the

innu to poise for a hts