"
The happy come back to life easily; and when the snow-drops were
beginning to peep above the ground, Phyllis, leaning upon John and
Richard, stood once more under the blue of heaven, and after that her
recovery was rapid and certain. The months of January and February
were peculiarly happy ones, full of delightful intercourse and hopeful
dreams. Of course they talked of the future; they knew all its
uncertainties, and faced, with happy hearts, the struggle they might
have together.
At the termination of John's last service he had possessed about two
thousand dollars, but this sum had been already much encroached upon,
and he was anxious to find a career which would enable him to make
a home for Phyllis. There seemed, however, but two possible ways for
John: he must have military service, or he must take up land upon the
frontier, stock it, and then defend it until he had won it. He had
lived so long the free life of the prairie and the woods, that the
crowds of cities and their occupations almost frightened him. For
theology he had no vocation and no "call." Medicine he had a most
decided repugnance to. Law seemed to him but a meddling in other
people's business and predicaments. He felt that he would rather face
a band of savages than a constant invasion of shoppers; rather stand
behind a breastwork than behind a desk and ledger.
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