The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-15

" Thomas Dixon
 drew back to her posIuon.
 'sNow, of course, it's unlawful" she answered with sober playfulness.
 The man watched her slyly for the next half mile. She was very. very quiet.
 They spent the night at the same old roadhouse and slept on feather beds. He hadn't felt the touch of a feather bed in years. He dreamed that he was at school again, man of thirty-fve, playing marbles with a crowd of towheaded boys, and. they were beating him at the game while Nan was standing near, her long plait of black hair hanging down her back, laughing at him because he was bare- footed!
 They started next day at 8 o'clock with the pack horses to make the trip along the dim bridIe trail, fourteen miles up the sides of frewning cliffs and over che tops of balsam crowned peaks to the summit of Mount Mitchell.
 Nan led the way, mounted on q sure footed young stallion. and Stuart fol- lowed her on 8 little black mule he had selected from the barn for his exact likeness to one he had raised as a pet when boy. The youngsters came struggling after them, mounted on an assortment of shaggy, scrubby looking animals that knew the noun tain path as 8 rabbit knows his trail in the jungle.
 At o'clock they passed through the first series of clouds and out into the sunlight beyond. The next line of clouds was dark and threatening and suddenly poured rain. Slowly but surely the horses picked their way up the mountain side through the storm and suddenly walked out into the sunlight again; they looked down on the smooth flat surface of the clouds through which they had passed.
 It was dusk when the party reached the summit. The horses were loosened to graze in the open field and the guides hurried to build fire in front of the cave made by projecting ledge of rock beneath which the party was to sleep.
 The bed of balsam boughs was too sharp a contrast to Mans million dollar room to permit Stuart much sleep. Be sides, the youngsters were giggling and laughing and joking most of the night Only big log marked the par tition wall between the mems and
 
 was so limited it was necessary to sleep close together. The girls and boys nev- CT grew tired cracking silly jokes about the magnifcence of their sleeping quar- ters. In vain Nan begged for quiet. It was o'clock before they were still at last and she fell into deep sleep.
 Stuart rose. sat before the log fire and watched the regular rise and fall of her bosom as she slept like a child On a distant mountain side he heard the howl of a lonely wolf. Sixteen years ago the mountains were full of them and they came quite close. He was re- minded of the narrowing strip of the savage world, fast disappearing before the march of civilization. Somewhere inside of him he heard the lonely cry Of another wolf.
 "She's mine-minei Nature gave her to me in the morning of life-I was a fool. should have taken her by force, | if need be, and she would have thank l ed me in after years. She has complied with the conventions of society and trampled the highest law of life. Why | not smash convention now at the call | of that law?'
 Again the wolf howled in the distant 1 darkness. and it seemed the echo of his l own mad cry He walked from his rev | dered that he could have harboFed the | thought for a moment
 | The eastern horizon was beginning to glow with the dawn. He rose, l walked to the summit and sat down on the pile of stones that marked the 1 grave of Professor Mitchell. He watch ed in silence until he saw the suns red rim suddenly leap above the blue black peaks of the east and drive the last shadow of the night from the val leys below. With their fading mists he | felt the darkness lift from his own heart and the sunlight of reason stream in. A new joy welled up from the depths of his spirit. He was alive to his finger tips, and his imagination glowed with the consciousness that life was strong and clean and worth while.
 with the help of God I'll keep it so, too"' he cried. I'm ready for the fight ! now. Let it come.''
 He knew ihstinctively that 1t was coming. He felt it in every word that l had fallen from Nan's lips since they left on this trip. He felt it most keenly of all when she was silent, read it in the tremor of her mouth, the shadowy tenderness of her eyes. the low, deep tones of her voice.