Above, the flocking larks pierced the air with silver notes, on the fence-rows the gathering robins called to each other; high in the air the old black vulture that homed in a hollow log in Kate’s woods, looked down on the spots of colour made by the pink quilt, the gold corn, the blue of Kate’s dress, and her yellow head.  An artist would have paused long, over the rich colour, the grouping and perspective of that picture, while the hazy fall atmosphere softened and blended the whole.  Kate, herself, never had appeared or felt better.  She worked rapidly, often glancing across the field to see if she was even with, or slightly in advance of Adam.  She said it would never do to let the boy get “heady,” so she made a point of keeping even with him, and caring for Little Poll, “for good measure.”

She was smiling as she watched him working like a machine as he ripped open husks, gave the ear a twist, tossed it aside, and reached for the next.  Kate was doing the same thing, quite as automatically.  She was beginning to find the afternoon sun almost hot on her bare head, so she turned until it fell on her back.  Her face was flushed to coral pink, and framed in a loose border of her beautiful hair.  She was smiling at the thought of how Adam was working to get ahead of her, smiling because Little Poll looked such a picture of healthy loveliness, smiling because she was so well, she felt super-abundant health rising like a stimulating tide in her body, smiling because the corn was the finest she ever had seen in a commonly cultivated field, smiling because she and Adam were of one accord about everything, smiling because the day was very beautiful, because her heart was at peace, her conscience clear.

She heard a car stop at her gate, saw a man alight and start across the yard toward the field, and knew that her visitor had seen her, and was coming to her.  Kate went on husking corn and when the man swung over the fence of the field she saw that he was Robert, and instantly thought of Mrs. Southey, so she ceased to smile.  “I’ve got a big notion to tell him what I think of him,” she said to herself, even as she looked up to greet him.  Instantly she saw that he had come for something.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Agatha,” he said.  “She’s been having some severe heart attacks lately, and she just gave me a real scare.”

Instantly Kate forgot everything, except Agatha, whom she cordially liked, and Robert, who appeared older, more tired, and worried than she ever had seen him.  She thought Agatha had “given him a real scare,” and she decided that it scarcely would have been bad enough to put lines in his face she never had noticed before, dark circles under his eyes, a look of weariness in his bearing.  She doubted as she looked at him if he were really courting Mrs. Southey.  Even as she thought of these things she was asking:  “She’s better now?”

“Yes, easier, but she suffered terribly.  Adam was upset completely.  Adam, 3d, and Susan and their families are away from home and won’t be back for a few days unless I send for them.  They went to Ohio to visit some friends.  I stopped to ask if it would be possible for you to go down this evening and sleep there, so that if there did happen to be a recurrence, Adam wouldn’t be alone.”