Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1908-01-18
CHAPTER XViil.-Continued.

For a long hour she sat there while
the tide of feeling ebbed and tears
came unchecked, and then the reac-
ton came With it, also, came some
thing of the old courage and defiance
that had once led her to face night,
danger, and 60 miles OF wilderness
alone.
az have made a mistake, she said,
sitting up, and Hannah was right.
am a nobody here, and Ray has been
told so and has kept away
And now with returning calm, and
soothed. maybe. by the still, ethereal
night. she saw herself, her past and
present, as it all was. Back in AL in
slant she sped in thought TO tho mo-
ment when, kneeling to these people,
she begged for food; back to that first
prayer she ever heard in the tent, and
the offer of rescue that followed.
And then her life here, with all it's
hopes and humiliation, rose before her.
ut was all wrong my coming here, "
she said, looking away TO the village
where lights twinkled; Il am not their
sort, nor they mine. I'd better go
away
Then, lifted wee bit by this new
resolve, she rose and returned to the
house.
The tall clock in the sitting-room
was Just Ginning ten when she en-
tered, and Aunt Comfort was there
aloue.
Raymond was here this evening""
she said kindly, and waited quite a
speij Where have you been?'
"Oh, nowhere" answered Chip,
pleasantly, only | was lonesome and
went out for a walk
Little did good Aunt Comfort realize
what Il volcano of hope, despair, shame
and tcuder love was concealed beneath
that calm answer, or the new resolve
budding in Chips heart
No more did Ray suspect it when he
met her coming home from school the
next afternoon.
Fur during those two wretched hours
when she was alone on the worn
schooihouse step, poor Chip Mcclure,
the iOw-born, pitiful waif, had become
ii Woiuoi anu put away Slioi III
pulses
Il couldn't come to see you that first
evening he said at once, "for uncle
and aunty kept me talking till bed
time. Where were you last night?'
"Oh, didn't much think you would
come, answered Chip, calmly smil-
ins a. him in far-off way. IL am a
nobody here, as you will soon find out,
and don't expect-anything. | got
lonesome last night and went off for "a
walk
Ray looked at her in wide-eyed
establishment And well he might, for
only two short days since she had
met him. an eager. simple girl, and
nov she spoke like a woman. No
word, NO hint of his neglect, escaped
her: but a cool Indifference was APP
parent.
Tell me about the woods and Ola
Cy' she said not waiting for him to
speak again, and how is the hermit?
i want to know all about them"
oh, left EN- all right" answered
Ray, sullenly, for like a boy he wanted
TO be coaXed. And then, urged little
by Chip, he told his winters expert
enCc.
One episode interested her most of
all--the strange trappers doings, his
theft of their game. their pursuit or
him and discovery Of his hiding spot.
II know who that was" she said,
when IL was all described. 1T was my
father, and if he had caught you spy
ing upon him, l guess he'd shot you
both lie always used to go some
where trapping every fall: but no
body could ever find where.
This return to the memories of the
wilderness wore away something of
Chips cool reserve, and when the
house was reached her eyes had grown
tender.
II shall be glad to see you often-as
AS y0ur folks will let you come,