"You see,"said Mr.Pryor,"I've been thinking things over deeply,deeply!ever since talking with your mother.I've cut myself off from going back to England,by sacrificing much of my property in hasty departure,if by any possibility I should ever want to return,and there is none,not the slightest!There's no danger of any one crossing the sea,and penetrating to this particular spot so far inland;we won't be molested!And lately--lately,despite the rawness,and the newness,there is something about the land that takes hold,after all.I should dislike leaving now!I found in watching some roots your mother gave me,that I wanted them to grow,that I very much hoped they would develop,and beautify our place with flowers,as yours is.
I find myself watching them,watching them daily,and oftener,and there seems to be a sort of home feeling creeping around my heart.I wish Pamela would listen to reason!I wish she would marry you soon!I wish there would be little children.Nothing else on earth would come so close to comforting my wife,and me also.Nothing!Go ahead,lad,plow away!I'll put your special pleading up to the girl."He clasped Laddie's hand,mounted and rode back to the gate he had entered when he came.Laddie sat on the rail,so I climbed down beside him.He put his arm around me.
"Do I feel any better?"he asked dubiously.
"Of course you do!"I said stoutly."You feel whole heaps,and stacks,and piles better.You haven't got him to fight any more,or Mrs.Pryor.It's now only to convince the Princess about how it's all right to plow.""Small matter,that!"said Laddie."And easy!Just as simple and easy!""Have you asked the Fairies to help you?"
"Aye,aye,sir,"said Laddie."Also the winds,the flowers,the birds and the bees!I have asked everything on earth to help me except you,Little Sister.I wonder if I have been making a mistake there?""Are you mad at me,Laddie?"
"'Cause for why?"
"About the old crest thing!"
"Forget it!"laughed Laddie."I have.And anyway,in the long run,I must be honest enough to admit that it may have helped.
It seems to have had its influence with Mr.Pryor,no doubt it worked the same on Mrs.Pryor,and it may be that it was because she had so much more to bank on than she ever expected,that the Princess felt emboldened to make her demand.It may be,you can't tell!Anyway,it's very evident that it did no real harm.
And forget my jesting,Chicken.A man can't always cry because there are tears in his heart.I think quite as much of that crest as you do.In the sum of human events,it is a big thing.
No one admires a Crusader more than I.No one likes a good fight better.No Crusader ever put up a stiffer battle than I have in the past week while working in these fields.Every inch of them is battlefield,every furrow a separate conflict.Gaze upon the scene of my Waterloo!When June covers it with green,it will wave over the resting place of my slain heart!""Oh Laddie!"I sobbed."There you go again!How can you?""Whoo-pee!"cried Laddie."That's the question!How can I?Got to,Little Sister!There's no other way.""No,"I was forced to admit,"there isn't.What are we going to do now?""Life-saver,we'll now go to dinner,"said Laddie."Nothing except the partnership implied in `we'sustains me now.YOU'LLFIND A WAY TO HELP ME OUT,WON'T YOU,LITTLE SISTER?""OF COURSE I WILL!"I promised,without ever stopping a minute to think what kind of a job that was going to be.
Did you ever wish with all your might that something would happen,and wait for it,expect it,and long for it,and nothing did,until it grew so bad,it seemed as if you had to go on another minute you couldn't bear it?Now I thought when Mr.
Pryor talked to her,maybe she'd send for Laddie that very same night;but send nothing!She didn't even ride on our road any more.Of course her father had made a botch of it!Bet I could have told her Laddie's message straighter than he did.I could think it over,and see exactly how he'd do.He'd talk nicely about one minute,and the first word she said,that he didn't like,he'd be ranting,and using unsuitable words.Just as like as not he told her that he'd lay his whip across her shoulders,like he had Laddie.Any one could see that as long as she was his daughter,she might be slightly handy with whips herself;at least she wouldn't be likely to stand still and tell him to go ahead and beat her.
Sunday Laddie went to Lucy's.He said he was having a family reunion on the installment plan.Of course we laughed,but none of us missed the long look he sent toward Pryors'as he mounted to start in the opposite direction.
Everything went on.I didn't see how it could,but it did.It even got worse,for another letter came from Shelley that made matters concerning her no brighter,and while none of us talked about Laddie,all of us knew mighty well how we felt;and what was much worse,how he felt.Father and mother had quit worrying about God;especially father.He seemed to think that God and Laddie could be trusted to take care of the Princess,and I don't know exactly what mother thought.No doubt she saw she couldn't help herself,and so she decided it was useless to struggle.
The plowing on the west side was almost finished,and some of the seed was in.Laddie went straight ahead flower-trimmed and whistling until his face must have ached as badly as his heart.
In spite of how hard he tried to laugh,and keep going,all of us could see that he fairly had to stick up his head and stretch his neck like the blue goose,to make the bites go down.And you couldn't help seeing the roundness and the colour go from his face,a little more every day.My!but being in love,when you couldn't have the one you loved,was the worst of all.I wore myself almost as thin as Laddie,hunting a Fairy to ask if she'd help me to make the Princess let Laddie go on and plow,when he was so crazy about it.I prayed beside my bed every night,until the Lord must have grown so tired He quit listening to me,for I talked right up as impressively as I knew how,and it didn't do the least bit of good.I hadn't tried the one big prayer toward the east yet;but I was just about to the place where I intended to do it soon.
