WILLIAM PERCY CECIL happened to be a younger son, so he left home -- which was England -- and went to Kansas to ranch it.Thousands of younger sons do the same, only their des-tination is not invariably Kansas.
An agent at Wichita picked out Cecil's farm for him and sent the deeds over to Eng-land before Cecil left.He said there was a house on the place.So Cecil's mother fitted him out for America just as she had fitted out another superfluous boy for Africa, and parted from him with an heroic front and big agonies of mother-ache which she kept to herself.
The boy bore up the way a man of his blood ought, but when he went out to the kennel to see Nita, his collie, he went to pieces somehow, and rolled on the grass with her in his arms and wept like a booby.But the remarkable part of it was that Nita wept too, big, hot dog tears which her master wiped away.When he went off she howled like a hungry baby, and had to be switched before she would give any one a night's sleep.
When Cecil got over on his Kansas place he fitted up the shack as cosily as he could, and learned how to fry bacon and make soda biscuits.Incidentally, he did farming, and sunk a heap of money, finding out how not to do things.Meantime, the Americans laughed at him, and were inclined to turn the cold shoulder, and his compatriots, of whom there were a number in the county, did not prove to his liking.They consoled themselves for their exiled state in fashions not in keeping with Cecil's traditions.His homesickness went deeper than theirs, per-haps, and American whiskey could not make up for the loss of his English home, nor flir-tations with the gay American village girls quite compensate him for the loss of his English mother.So he kept to himself and had nostalgia as some men have consumption.
At length the loneliness got so bad that he had to see some living thing from home, or make a flunk of it and go back like a cry baby.He had a stiff pride still, though he sobbed himself to sleep more than one night, as many a pioneer has done before him.So he wrote home for Nita, the collie, and got word that she would be sent.Arrangements were made for her care all along the line, and she was properly boxed and shipped.
As the time drew near for her arrival, Cecil could hardly eat.He was too excited to apply himself to anything.The day of her expected arrival he actually got up at five o'clock to clean the house and make it look as fine as possible for her inspection.Then he hitched up and drove fifteen miles to get her.The train pulled out just before he reached the station, so Nita in her box was waiting for him on the platform.He could see her in a queer way, as one sees the purple centre of a revolving circle of light; for, to tell the truth, with the long ride in the morn-ing sun, and the beating of his heart, Cecil was only about half-conscious of anything.
He wanted to yell, but he didn't.He kept himself in hand and lifted up the sliding side of the box and called to Nita, and she came out.
