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One bit of woodland, however, was beginning to dignify the valley. The Aydelot grove spread over a hundred acres before the one-time sod Sunflower Inn. The new home was on the swell now as Virginia had seen the Colonial mansion of the mirage on the day she went seeking aid for the grasshopper-beset neighborhood.
The sunny plains of Kansas were fair and full of growing in the spring of 1898. The alfalfa creeping out against the weeds of the old Cloverdale Ranch was green under the April sunshine. The breezes sweeping down the Grass River Valley carried a vigor in their caress. The Aydelot grove, just budding into leaf, was full of wild birds' song.
He knew it came from the bushes below the red scarf. So he changed his course and hurried around a bend in the stream to the other side of the brush where Virginia Aydelot stood beside Juno. "I'm afraid there isn't even a stone to rest on here, Madam. Can I be of any service to you?" he said, lifting his hand toward his cap in semi-military salute.
The minister school-teacher, Pryor Gaines, called it the "old folks' class," although there was not a person over thirty-five years of age in the whole settlement. Asher Aydelot was the superintendent, and Virginia took care of the infant class. Jim Shirley led the singing, and Pryor Gaines taught the "old folks." He was the same minister school-teacher who had sat at the table with Dr.
"We did not recognize each other when I found her on the way to Carey's Crossing three or four years ago, and I did not know she was married then." He sat a while in silence, looking at the window against which the wind outside was whirling the snow. When he spoke again his tone was hopeful. "Mrs. Aydelot has had a nervous shock. But she is young. She has a heritage of will power and good blood.
There was a half-tone lowering of the voice as Smith pronounced the name, which was not lost on Champers, whose business was to catch men at all corners. "Jim Shirley lives out in one of the rich valleys west. Him and a fellow named Aydelot have some big notions of things out there. I don't know the doc's claim to control his mail, but nobody here would deny Carey any danged thing he wanted."
Asher and Virginia Aydelot had come out on the veranda to look for Leigh. A moment they waited, then Asher said softly: "He has forgotten us, but he has come back to the life we love." "And he will come back to us tenfold more ours, because his heart is here," Virginia answered, and the two stole softly indoors.
What I wear now is a burden," Todd Stewart declared. "Well, gentlemen." Darley Champers took the floor. "What are you going to do? That's what brought me here today. I knowed I'd find you all here. When I sent some of you fellows into this blasted Sahara, I was honest. I thought Grass River was a real stream, not a weed patch and a stone outcrop. I'd seen water in it, as I can prove by Aydelot.
Clearly, Jim Shirley was a man that men and women, too, must love if they cared for him at all.. And they couldn't help caring for him. He had too much of the quality of eternal interest. "I'm glad to meet you, and I bid you welcome to your new home, Mrs. Aydelot. The house is in order and supper is ready. I congratulate you, Asher," he said, as he turned away to take the ponies.
Doctor Carey looked back to wave good-by just in time to see Virginia Aydelot coming toward Thaine, who stood watching the buggy. Instantly the pretty face of Jane Aydelot came to his mind, her face as she had looked on the night when they sat by the wood fire in the Aydelot farmhouse. Against that picture stood the reality of Virginia with her richer coloring.
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