, 1915-06-17

his hands together and laughed aloud.
Back to the soili" he said. John
Valiant, farmerl The miracle of 1t is
that 1t sounds good to me. l want to
raise my own grub and till my own
soil. l want to be my own man! And
I'm beginning to see my way. Crops
will have to wait for another season,
but there's water and pasture for cat
tie now. There's timber-lots of 1t
on that hillside, too. l must look into
that"
He filed his pipe and climbed the
staircase to the upper floor. There
were many bedrooms with great four
posted, canopied beds and old-fash-
Toned carved furniture of mahogany
and curly-maple, and In one he found
a great cedar-lined chest filled with
b~ed-linen n napery. In these rooms
were more evidences of decay. The
bedroom he mentally chose for his
own was the plainest of all, n was
above the library, fronting the vaga-
bond garden. 1t had a great black
desk with many glass-knobbed draw
ers and a book-rack.
He fingered longest IN a room
whose door was painted The Hilarium.
1t had evidently been a nursery and
schoolroom. Here on the walls were
many shelves wound over with net
works of cobwebs, and piled with the
oldest a~ssemblage of toys. There
were school-books, too, thumbed and
~dog-eared, from First Reader to
Caesars Gallo Wars, with names of
small Valiants scrawled on their fly
leaves. He carefully relocked the door
of this room; he wanted to lust those
toys and books with his own hands.
In the upper hall again he leaned
from the window. shifting the far
hung scent of orchards and peach
blown fence-rows. The soft whirring
sound of a birds wing went past, al
most brushing his startled face, and
the old a k seemed to stretch their
bent limbs with a faithful brute-like
yawn of pleasure. In the room below
he could hear the vigorous sound of
Aunt Daphne's hard-driven broom and
the sound flooded the echoing space
with a comfortable commotion.
He went to his trunk and fished out
a soft shirt on which he knotted a
loose tie. exchanged his Panama for
a SLOUGH hat. and whistling the bar
carole from Tales of Hoffman,. went
gaily out. Il feel tremendously alive
today" he confided to the dog, as he
tramped through the lush grass. IF
o see me ladle the muck out of
that fountain with my own fair hands,
don't have a At. I'm liable to do any
thing"
His y swept up and down the
slope. There probably isn't a finer
site for a house in the whole South"
he told himself. THE living-rooms
front south and west. Well get
scrumptious sunsets from that back
porch. And on the other side there's
the view clear to the Blue Ridge"
He skirted the lake. only to grub
out some of the lilies-there's too
many of them-and s%traighten the
rim-and weed the pebble margin to
give those green rocks a show. I'll
build a little wharf below them to dive
from, and-yes, I'll stock 1t with
spotted trout"
He was but a few hundred yards
from the house, yet the silence was SO
deep that there might have been no
habitation within fifty miles. All at
once he stopped short; there was a
sudden movement in the thicket be-
yond-the sound of light fast footballs.
as of some n running away.
He made a lunge for the dog, but
with a growl Chum lore himself from
the restraining grasp and dashed into
the bushes. "A child. no doubt" he
thought as hi plunged in pursuit, and
that lubberly brute will scare 1t half
to DEATH"
He pulled NJ with an exclamation.
In a narrow wood-path a little way
from him, partly hidden by a wind.
fall, stood a girl. her skirt transfl.ed
with a wickedly Jagged sapling. He
saw instantly how 1t had happened;
the windfall had blocked the way, and
she had sprung clear over 1t, not
noting the screened spear, which now
held her 3 effectually as any railroad
spike.
In another moment Valiant had
reached her n met her face, flushed,
half defiant, her eyes a blue CLEAN of
~smoldering anger as she desperately.
almost savagely, thrust wild tendrils
of f1ame-colored hair beneath the
broad curved brim of her straw hat.
At her feet lay a great armful of cape
Jessamines.
A little thrill. light and warm and
joyous, ran through him. Until that
instant he had not recognized her.