she partly knew and partly guessed about the results of the affair. At
once he realized that her instant and audacious retaliation was what
had made possible his success and his growing popularity.
Nevertheless, he was shocked at first, for New England was still but a
little way behind him. But amusement soon overcame every other
feeling, and he laughed heartily in admiration of her daring, just as
his opponent had done. After that, he seemed to take particular pride
in her sobriquet, and himself often called her "Colonel Kate."




HOLLYHOCKS

Green and peaceful, the long, low undulations of the prairie sea of
southern Kansas spread away to the horizon in lines as graceful and
pleasing as those of a reclining Venus. Here and there against a
hillside the emerald waves broke in a bright foam of many-colored
flowers. In all that vast extent over which I could look, there was
visible no living creature save the tiny furred and feathered things
whose home it was. The soft prairie wind blew caressingly against my
cheek and seemed to whisper in my ear: "Why do men cling to the
boisterous, cruel, lying sea as the emblem of freedom? Is not here
beauty that allures with freedom's own charms? Is not here freedom
herself, serene, smiling, constant, and blessed with a blessedness the
sea knows not?"

The prairie wind blew the freedom it sang of into my heart, and it
dwelt there with joy and exultation as I drove on and on over the waves
of that smiling emerald sea. I salved my eyes, wearied and scorched by