waters at Carlsbad? We did plan a great trip--father and mother and
Tim and I--we were going to England together when the farm showed a
surplus. We never saw that surplus. I went to Philadelphia once.
It's a grand place, but I had just enough of money to keep me there two
days and bring me home. Then the war came. And now Tim thinks I've
been around the world. He's jealous, for he has never been past
Harrisburg; but I've really gone around a little circle. I've seen
just enough of flying fishes to hanker after Mandalay, just enough of
Spaniards to long for a sight of Spain. But they've shipped me home
and here I am anchored. Here I shall stay until that surplus
materializes; and you know in our country we have neither coal nor oil
nor iron."

"But they tell me that you are to teach the school," she said.

"For which I am grateful," I answered. "Twenty dollars a month is the
salary, and school keeps for six months, so I shall earn the large sum
of $120 a year."

"But your pension?"

"With my pension I shall be a nabob in Six Stars. Anywhere else I
should cut a very poor figure. But after all, this is the best place,
for is there any place where the skies are bluer; is there any place
where the grass is greener; is there any place where the storms are
wilder than over our mountains?"

"Sometimes I would say in Kansas," the girl answered. "Here the world
seems to end at the top of the mountain. It is hard to picture
anything beyond that. Out there you raise yourself on tiptoe, and you