platform to the ground. He scrambled quickly to his feet again, flushed,
angry, and--frightened! Perhaps she would call her father; he would be
insulted, or worse,--laughed at! He had lost even this pitiful chance of
bettering his condition. But he was as relieved as he was surprised
to see that she was standing quietly on the edge of the platform,
apparently waiting for him to rise. Her face was still uncovered, still
slightly flushed, but bearing no trace of either insult or anger. When
he stood erect again, she looked at him gravely and drew the woolen
cloud over her head, as she said calmly, "Then I'll tell pa you'll take
the place, and I reckon you'll begin to-morrow morning."


II.


Angered, discomfited, and physically and morally beaten, James Reddy
stumbled and clambered back across the field. The beam of light that had
streamed out over the dark field as the door opened and shut on the
girl left him doubly confused and bewildered. In his dull anger and
mortification, there seemed only one course for him to pursue. He would
demand his wages in the morning, and cut the whole concern. He would go
back to San Francisco and work there, where he at least had friends who
respected his station. Yet, he ought to have refused the girl's offer
before she had repulsed him; his retreat now meant nothing, and might
even tempt her, in her vulgar pique, to reveal her rebuff of him. He
raised his eyes mechanically, and looked gloomily across the dark waste
and distant bay to the opposite shore. But the fog had already hidden
the glow of the city's lights, and, thickening around the horizon,
seemed to be slowly hemming him in with the dreary rancho. In his
present frame of mind there was a certain fatefulness in this that