THE CALL OF DUTY It was upon my mind all through that long afternoon, as I swung the scythe in the meadow grass.

I saw Burns ride away up the river trail soon after I returned to work, and wondered if he bore with him any message from my father.

It was like a romance to me, to whom so few important things had ever happened.

In some way, the coming of this letter out of the great unknown had lifted me above the narrow life of the clearing.

My world had always been so small, such a petty and restricted circle, that this new interest coming within its horizon had widened it wonderfully.
I had grown up on the border, isolated from what men term civilization; and I could justly claim to know chiefly those secrets which the frontier teaches its children.