“Stephen writes to me,” Helen replied with a hint of sharpness.

“I guess he does,” Sadie agreed.  “Still, from what Bob says, they haven’t much time for letters, and he talked to me about the work all last evening.  He could leave when Stephen couldn’t because he’s the junior partner and doesn’t know much about railroading yet.”

Helen smiled, rather curiously.  “Do you feel you must explain why your husband came home and mine did not?”

For a moment or two Sadie hesitated.  It looked as if she had not begun well, but she braced herself.  If her tact were faulty, she would try frankness.

“Yes,” she said; “in a way that was what I did come to explain, though it’s difficult.  In the first place, I know why Stephen couldn’t come.”

Helen waited, and then, as Sadie seemed to need some encouragement, said, “Very well.  I think I’d like to be convinced.”

“The reason Bob came and Stephen stayed begins with the difference between them.  We know them both, and I want to state that I’m quite satisfied with Bob.  That had to be said, and now we’ll let it go.  But they are different.  Bob will work for an object; for dollars, to feel he’s making good, or to please me.  Your husband must work, whether he had an object or not, because that’s the kind of man he is.”

“Bob’s way is easier understood,” Helen rejoined.  “Besides, Stephen is working for money enough to farm again on the old large scale.”

“He is; but you don’t understand yet, and I want to show you why he feels he has got to farm.  Stephen’s the kind we have most use for in this country.  In fact, he’s my kind; perhaps I know him better than you.  Give him a patch of pine-scrub or a bit of poor soil in a sand-belt and he’d feel it his duty to cultivate it, no matter how much work it cost.  Show him good wheat land lying vacant or rocks that block a railroad, and he won’t rest till he starts the gang-plow or gets to work with giant-powder.  He can’t help it; the thing’s born in him.  Like liquor or gambling, only cleaner!”

“But when such a man marries——­”

“What about his wife?  Well, she must help all she can or stand out and let him work alone.  It’s a sure thing she can’t stop him.”

Helen pondered, and then remarked:  “Stephen is not your kind, as you said.  You wanted to leave the prairie and live in a town.”

“I certainly did, but I didn’t know myself.  Though I wanted to meet smart people and wear smart clothes, to push Bob on and see him make his mark in big business or perhaps in politics.  Now I know I really wanted power; to order folks about and get things done.”

“You found you must give up your ambitions.”

“I saw they had to be altered,” Sadie replied.  “But when you can’t get things done by others, you can do them, in a smaller way, yourself, and I find I can be satisfied with running a prairie farm as it ought to be run.”  She paused and resumed with a soft laugh:  “Looks as if neither of us was fixed quite as we like.  I have a husband who must be hustled; you want to hold yours back.  Well, I guess we can’t change that; we must take the boys for what they are and make allowances.  Besides, your man’s fine energy is perhaps the best thing he has.”