“My greatest hope is that you will feel that you can put up with me,” he said.  “I would try to learn how to make you happy.  I think if you would help me a little I could do it.”

“I don’t think I am worth having,” the girl answered.  “I feel like a little old woman these days.”

“It seems to me that you are the only one in the world worth having,” said Abe.

“If you want me to, I will marry you, Abe,” said she.  “I can not say that I love you, but my mother and father say that I would learn to love you, and sometimes I think it is true.  I really want to love you.”

They were on the bluff that overlooked the river and the deserted mill.  They were quite alone looking down at the moonlit plains.  A broken sigh came from the lips of the tall young man.  He wiped his eyes with his handkerchief.  He took her hand in both of his and pressed it against his breast and looked down into her face and said: 

“I wish I could tell you what is in my heart.  There are things this tongue of mine could say, but not that.  I shall show you, but I shall not try to tell you.  Words are good enough for politics and even for the religion of most men, but not for this love I feel.  Only in my life shall I try to express it.”

He held her hand as they walked on in silence for a moment.

“About a year from now we can be married,” he said.  “I shall be able to take care of you then, I think.  Meanwhile we will all help you to take care of yourself.  You don’t look well.”

She kissed his cheek and he kissed hers when they parted at the door of the tavern.

“I am sure I shall love you,” she whispered.

“Those are the best words that ever came to my ears,” he answered, and left her with a solemn sense of his commitment.

Soon after that Abe went to the north line of the county to do some surveying, and on his return, in the last week of May, came out for a talk with the Traylors.

“I’ve been up to the Kelsos’ home and had a wonderful talk with him and Brimstead,” said Abe.  “They have discovered each other.  Kelso lives in a glorious past and Brimstead in a golden future.  They’re both poets.  Kelso is translating the odes of Pindar.  Brimstead is constructing the future of Illinois.  They laugh at each other and so create a fairly agreeable present.”

“Did you see Annabel?” Harry asked.

“About sixty times a minute while I was there.  So pretty you can’t help looking at her.  She’s coming down to visit Ann, I hope.  If you don’t see her every day she’s here, I shall lose my good opinion of you.  It will be a sure sign that your eyes don’t know how, to enjoy themselves.”

“We shall all see her and fall in love with her, too, probably,” said Sarah.

“She’s made on the right pattern of the best material,” Abe went on.  “She’s full of fun and I thought it would be a great thing for Ann.  She hasn’t had any one to play with of her own age and standing since Bim went away.  I was thinking of Harry, too.  He needs somebody to play with.”