Tombstone epitaph., 1917-01-28
CHAPTER XII-Continued.

Dawn turned away and went stalk ing along the woodland path without backward glance and Milt followed al her heels, with Juanita. much amused. bringing up the rear. The customer thought that these two young folks made splendid pair. specimens of the best of the mountains. as yet unbroken by heavy harness. Then, as the younger girl passed under a swinging rope of wild grapevine. stopping low. a tendril caught in her hair.
 Without a word Young Milt bent for. ward and was freeing it, tingling through his pulses as his fingers touched the heavy black mass, but as soon as she was loose the girl sprang away and wheeled. her eyes blazing. How dast ye tech me?" she de- manded. panting with wrath. How dast ye?"
 The boy laughed easily. ''l dast do anything I wants." he told her.
 For a moment they stood looking at each other, then the girl dropped her eyes, but the anger had died out Of them. and Juanita saw that. despite her condescending air. she was not displeased.
 Juanita. of course. knew nothing of Jeb's suspicious that had led him into the laurel. but even without that in- formation. when Young Milt met them more often than could be attributed to chance on their walks and fell into the habit of strolling back with them. strong forebodings began to trouble her
 And one morning these forebodings were verified in crisis for. while the youthful McBriar lounged near the porch of Juanita's cabin talking with Dawn. another shadow fell across the sunlight: the shadow of Jeb McNash. He had come silently, and it was only as Young Milt, whose back had been turned. shifted his position. that the two boys recognized each other.
 Juanita saw the start with which Jeb's figure stiffened and grew taut. She saw his hands ciench themselves and his face turn white as chalk; saw his chest rise and fall under heavy breathing that hissed through clenched teeth, and her own heart pounded with wild anxiety.
 But Milt McBriar's face showed nothing. His fathers masklike calm ness of feature had come down to him, and as he read the meaning of the other boys attitude he merely nodded and said casually: "Howdy. Jeb.
 Jeb did not answer. He could not answer. He was training and punish ing every fiber cruelty simply in standing where he was and keeping his hands at his sides For a time he remained stiff and white, breathing spasmodically: then, without word, he turned and stalked away.
 That moon a horseman brought note across the ridge, and as Juanita Holland read 1t she felt that all her dreams were crumbling the soul of them was paralyzed.
 it was a brief note. written in a copybook hand. and it ran:
 I'll have to ask you to send the McNash children over to my house. Jeb doesn't want them to be consorting with the Me Rriars and can't blame him He is the head of his family.
 Respectfully.
 ANsE HAvEY.
 A stronger thing to Juanita Holland than the personal disappointment which had driven her to this work was nov her eager, fiery interest in the undertaking itself. In these months she had disabused herself of many preiudices. There remained that lin gering one against the man with whom she had not made friends
 The thing she had set out to do was a hundredfold more vital now than il had been when it stood for carrying out a dead grandfather's wish She had been with these people in child birth and death. in sickness and want; .he had seen summer go from its ten der beginning to a vagabond end witf fits tattered banners of ripened corn autumn had blazed and fared int high carnival
 A. voun1 Ieh had turned on his hee