Mary Ellen Chase

“ Mary Ann was silent. Once she started a little as Nathan's clumsy fin- gers touched the largest marigold. She knew that by parting the feathery leaves ever so little he might discover a bud concealed there.
"They don't look Like vegetables to me," he continued. "They ain't squat enough, unless they're some new kind of asparagras, and that *d be a luxury. The guve'ment wouldn't do that." ”

“ Nathan grunted a gruff appreciation as he sat down.
" Plowin's extra hard," he said, "when a man's been lay in* by all winter. But the east meadow '11 be done by sundown if there ain't no hitch in things. Then I'll get around to the gardens, A farmer can't plant too much these war-times,"
"Things look good in the front yard," vouchsafed Mary Ann. " I was out there between-times this morning,"
"That tomato-patch is too good a piece to waste," Nathan observed as he helped himself to potatoes. "I ain't goin' to fool with any more tomatoes this year, and I 'ain't just decided what to put in there. ”

“ Through the long grass by the brook, which for years had made the Perkins' farm the best in the village* the water- rats scurried on secret, silent errands, and a single dandelion glowed like a fallen planet upon a tiny green hum- mock close to the amber water. ”

“ Every living, growing thing in the meadow throbbed with new life — except Nathan. He held the plow, the horse's reins around his neck, and trudged stodgily through the brown earth and over the broken sods. He was relieved that the soil was drier than he had ex- pected. April plowing would be possi- ble — the first time in years. With an early harvest in these war-times, it looked as though the farmer might at last get his innings, Nathan told himself a little churlishly. He turned the horse around, began a new furrow, and plodded on*
With Mary Ann, his wife, things were different. ”

“ Nathan was busy with a new pasture fence, and gave little thought to his strictly patriotic venture. But one Sun- day morning, as he and Mary Ann came from church, he stopped before the fence plots. Mary Ann stopped, too, strangely calm. The peonies nodded reassuringly.
"I can t make out them things, no- how," said Nathan. "They ain't car- rots — they're too dark green and stalky. They're half-fillin* the beds and hidin' all the rest. It don't seem 's though there was as many more seeds o* one kind as that. ”

“ As" he came up the steps, a great ten- derness swept over Mary Ann, She was grateful for Nathan's stupidity — thank- ful that he never once imagined the pos- sibility of her deceit. She had intended to tell him everything. In the days of his absence she had spent hours in med- itation, sometimes by the marigolds, more often in bed at night. She had been troubled even beyond expectation — not by her sin, but by her love of it. Once she had put on her bonnet and shawl and started for the minister's. She would ask him if sin were always hateful to the sinner. ”

“ Nathan agreed, "I 'ain't looked at "em before,'*
It was two weeks before he looked again* The larger gardens demanded attention, and the front yard was not generally frequented, even on Sundays.
"HI be durned," he observed to Mary Ann, on the occasion of his second inspection, "if the guve'ment 'ain't sent a mess o' carrot seed* Leastways them new rows up look like carrots, or some- thin* near akin, though I must say I never knew 'em to take so long before. Carrots is cheap enough fodder for any one. ”

“ Only a mouth full of ham had allowed her to finish her suggestion* Nathan swallowed as hastily as possible*
"Flowers!' 3 he said, scornfully. "You ain't rnentionin' flowers in these war- times! I don't know what the guve'- ment would say to that when it's urgin* us to use every spare bit o' land for food. What's the use o' stick in* food-savin* cards up in the windows like you've been do in* when you ain't will in' to give up havin' a few flowers? Ain't lilacs and syringas and those red things enough, I'd like to know, without goin' contrary to the guve'ment?" ”

“ That night as she lay wakeful while Nathan slept she saw the marigolds — not blighted by God's disapproval, but glowing under His smile.
"Seems to me,** observed Nathan, coming in at noon a few days later, "that I planted twelve rows of them surprise vegetables to a bed. There ain't but six showin'. *Twan't twelve in all, was it?"
° No," said Mary Ann, imperturbably, as she dished up the boiled dinner. "I'm pretty sure there was twelve in each. It's possible that some o' the seeds take longer 'n others to start." ”