Diane of the Green Van

"That is a very singular thing."

"Yes."

"Why have you not told him of the tall sentinel you have furtively watched of moonlit nights among the trees, a sentinel who slept by day upon a ridiculous bed of hay that he might smoke and watch over the camp of his lady until peep o' day?"

"I--do not know."

"You are sighing even now for the van and a camp fire--for the hay-camp through the trees--"

"No!" with a very definite flash of perversity.

"Where is this persistent young nomad of the hay-camp anyway?"

"I--I have wondered myself."

But with a quiver of impatience the horse had pawed the ground and the tiny bird flew off to a distant clump of palmetto.

Diane rode hurriedly off into the flat-woods.