Before going out he had put on his canvas shooting coat and a pair of

hobnailed leather hunting boots, laced for a little distance at the

front and sides. He visited the horses, standing disconsolate under an

open shed in the corral; he slopped, with constantly accruing masses of

sticky earth at his feet, to the chicken coop, into which he cast an

eye; he even took the kitchen pails and tramped down to the spring and

back. In the gulch he did not see or hear a living thing. A newly-born

and dirty little stream was trickling destructively through all manner

of shivering grasses and flowers. The water from Bennington's sleeves

ran down over the harsh canvas cuffs and turned his hands purple with

the cold. He returned to the cabin and changed his clothes.

The short walk had refreshed him, but it had spurred his impatience.

Outside, the world seemed to have changed. His experience with the

Hills, up to now, had always been in one phase of their beauty--that of

clear, bright sunshine and soft skies. Now it was as a different

country. He could not get rid of the feeling, foolish as it was, that

it was in reality different; and that the whole episode of the girl and

the rock was as a vision which had passed. It grew indistinct in the

presence of this iron reality of cold and wet. He could not assure

himself he had not imagined it all. Thus, belated, he came to thinking

of her again, and having now nothing else to do, he fell into daydreams

that had no other effect than to reveal to him the impatience which had

been, from the first, the real cause of his restlessness under the

temporary confinement. Now the impatience grew in intensity. He

resolved that if the morrow did not end the storm, he would tramp down

the gulch to make a call. All this time Aliris lay quite untouched.

The next day dawned darker than ever. After breakfast Old Mizzou, as

usual, went out to feed the horses, and Bennington, through sheer

idleness, accompanied him. They distributed the oats and hay, and then

stood, sheltered from the direct rain, conversing idly.

Suddenly the wind died and the rain ceased. In the place of the gloom

succeeded a strange sulphur-yellow glare which lay on the spirit with

almost physical oppression. Old Mizzou shouted something, and scrambled

excitedly to the house. Bennington looked about him bewildered.

Over back of the hill, dimly discernible through the trees, loomed the

black irregular shape of a cloud, in dismal contrast to the yellow

glare which now filled all the sky. The horses, frightened, crowded up

close to Bennington, trying to push their noses over his shoulder. A

number of jays and finches rushed down through the woods and darted

rapidly, each with its peculiar flight, toward a clump of trees and

bushes standing on a ridge across the valley.




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