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Alexander drew her shawl closer about her and stood leaning against the frame of the mill, looking at the stars which glittered so keenly through the frosty autumn air. She always love to watch them, to think of their vastness and distance, and of their oredered march. It fortified her to reflect upon the great operation of nature, and when she thought of the law that lay behind them, she felt a sense of security. That night she had a new consciousness of the country,felt almost a new relationship to it. Even her talk with the boys had not taken away the feeling that had overwhelmed her when she drove back to the Divide that afternoon. She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been  like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned and buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.