The speaker stopped a moment to look at 271 his companion. “Is this a bore? Somehow I can’t help talking to-night.”
“No, please go on,” said the girl quickly.
“Well, the boy graduated––but not alone. For two years he had worked side by side with a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. From the time he had first seen her she was his ideal––his divinity. And she had never spoken with him five minutes in her life. After graduation, the girl went away to a big university. Her parents were wealthy, and her every wish was gratified.”
Again the speaker hesitated. When he went on his face was hard, his voice bitter.
“And the boy––he was poor and he went back to the farm. He was the best hand in the country; for the work he received good wages. If he had worked hard before, he worked now like a demon. He thought of the girl away at college, and tried at first to crowd her from his memory––but in vain. Then he worked in self-defence––and to forget.
“He saw years slipping by––and himself still a farmhand. The thought maddened him, 272 because he knew he was worthy of something better.
“Gradually, his whole life centred upon one object––to save money for college. Other boys called him close and cold; but he did not care. He seldom went anywhere, so intent was he upon his one object. On hot summer nights, tired and drowsy he would read until Nature rebelled, and he would fall asleep to dream of a girl––a girl with brown eyes that made one forget––everything. In winter, he had more time––and the little lamp in his room became a sort of landmark: it burned for hours after every other light in the valley had ceased shining.
“Four years passed, and at last the boy had won. In a month he would pass from the prairie to university life. He had no home, few friends––who spoke; those who did not were safely packed at the bottom of his trunk. His going from the little town would excite no more comment than had his coming. He was all ready, and for the first time in his life set apart a month––the last––as a vacation. He felt positively gay. He had fought a hard fight––and had won. He saw the dawning of a 273 great light––saw the future as a battle-ground where he would fight; not as he was then, but fully equipped for the struggle.... But no matter what air-castles he built; they were such as young men will build to the end of time.”
The speaker’s voice lowered––stopped. He looked straight out over the prairie, his eyes glistening.
“If so far the boy’s life had been an inferno, he was to be repaid. The girl––she of the brown eyes––was home once more, and they met again as members of a camping party.” He half-turned in his seat to look at her, but she sat with face averted, so quiet, so motionless, that he wondered if she heard.