Those were days when men were famous according as they could "cut off the heels of a rival mower." There are that grieve that, one by one, from field and from forest, are banished those ancient arts of daily toil by which men were wont to prove their might, their skill of hand and eye, their invincible endurance. But there still offer in life's stern daily fight full opportunity to prove manhood in ways less picturesque perhaps, but no less truly testing.
Down the swath came Barney, his sinewy body swinging in very poetry of motion.
"Doesn't he do it well!" said the girl, following with admiring eyes every movement of his well-poised frame. "How big he is!
Why--" and her blue eyes widened with startled surprise, "he's almost a man!" The tint of the thistle bloom deepened in her cheek. She glanced down and made as if to spring to the ground; then settling herself resolutely back against her fence stake, she exclaimed, "Pshaw! I don't care. He is just a boy. Anyway, I'm not going to mind Barney Boyle."
On came the mower in mighty sweeps, cutting the swath clean out to the end.
"Well done!" cried the girl. "You'll be cutting off Long John's heels in a year or so."
"A year or so! If I can't do it to-day I never can. But I don't want to blow."
"You needn't. They're all talking about you, with your binding and pitching and cradling, and what not."
"They are, are they? Who is good enough to waste breath on me?"
"Oh, everybody. The McKenzie girls were just telling me the other day."
"Oh, pshaw! I ran away from their crowd, but that's nothing."
"And I suppose you have not an idea how nice you look as you go swinging along?"
"Do I? That's the only time then."
"Oh, now you're fishing, and I'm not going to bite. Where did you learn the scythe?"
"Where? Right here where we had to, **** and I. By the way, he's coming home to-day." He glanced at her face quickly as he said this, but her face showed only a frank pleasure.
"To-day? Good. Won't your mother be glad?"
"Yes. And some other people, too," said Barney.
"And who, particularly?"
A sudden shyness seemed to seize the young man, but recovering himself, "Well, I guess I will, myself, a little. This is the first time he has ever been away. We never slept a night apart from each other as long as I can mind till he went to college last year. He used to put his arm just round me here," touching his breast. "I'll tell you the first nights after he went I used to feel for him in the dark and be sick to find the place empty."
"Well," said the girl doubtfully, "I hope he won't be different.
College does make a difference, you know."
"Different! ****! He'd better not. I'll thrash the daylights out of him. But he won't be different. Not to us, nor," he added shyly, "to you."
"Oh, to me?" She laughed lightly. "He had better not try any airs with me."
"What would you do?" inquired Barney. "You couldn't take it out of his hide."
"Oh, I'd fix him. I'd take him down," she replied with a knowing shake of her head.
"Poor ****! He's in for a hard time," replied Barney. "But nothing can change ****. And I am awful glad he's coming to-day, in time for the raising, too."
"The raising? Oh, yes. The McLeods'. Yes, I remember. And," regretfully, "a big supper and a big spree afterwards in the new barn."
"Are not you going?" inquired Barney.
"I don't know. They want me to go to help, but I don't think I'll go. I don't think father would like me to go, and,"--a pause--"anyway, I don't think I can get away."
"Oh, pshaw! Get Old Nancy in. She can take care of the children for once. You would like the raising. It's great fun."
"Oh! wouldn't I, though? It's fine to see them racing. They get so wild and yell so."
"Well, come on then. You must come. They'll all be disappointed, if you don't. And **** is coming that way, too. Alec Murray is to bring him on his way home from town." Again Barney glanced keenly at her face, but he saw only puzzled uncertainty there.
"Well, I don't know. We'll see. At any rate, I must go now."
"Wait," cried Barney, "I'll go with you. We're having dinner early to-day." He hung up the scythe in the thorn tree and threw the stone at the foot.
