hearkened to man's wants and answered; the clement sun and summer rains
hastened the fruition. Yonder stood the brown haystack, garnered to feed
the industrious horse who had earned his meed; there was the straw-
thatched shelter for the cattle. How the orchard boughs bent with their
burdens! The big red barns stood stored with the harvested wheat; and,
beyond the pasture-lands, tall trees rose against the benign sky to feed
the glance of a dreamer; the fertile soil lay lavender and glossy in the
furrow. The farmhouses were warmly built and hale and strong; no winter
blast should rage so bitterly as to shake them, or scatter the hospitable
embers on the hearth. For this was Carlow County, and he was coming home.

They crossed a by-road. An old man with a streaky gray chin-beard was
sitting on a sack of oats in a seatless wagon, waiting for the train to
pass. Harkless seized his companion excitedly by the elbow.

"Tommy!" he cried. "It's Kim Fentriss--look! Did you see that old fellow?"

"I saw a particularly uninterested and uninteresting gentleman sitting on
a bag," replied his friend.

"Why, that's old Kimball Fentriss. He's going to town; he lives on the
edge of the county."

"Can this be true?" said Meredith gravely.

"I wonder," said Harkless thoughtfully, a few moments later, "I wonder why
he had them changed around."

"Who changed around?"