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diff --git a/22287.txt b/22287.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34449c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/22287.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11387 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Smiles', by Eliot H. Robinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: 'Smiles' + A Rose of the Cumberlands + +Author: Eliot H. Robinson + +Illustrator: H. Weston Taylor + +Release Date: August 9, 2007 [EBook #22287] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'SMILES' *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +"SMILES" + +A ROSE OF THE CUMBERLANDS + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +By ELIOT H. ROBINSON + +"SMILES": A Rose of the Cumberlands . . . $1.90 + +SMILING PASS: Being a Further Account +of the Career of "Smiles": A Rose of the +Cumberlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.90 + +MARK GRAY'S HERITAGE . . . . . . . . . . $1.90 + +THE MAID OF MIRABELLE: A Romance +of Lorraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.90 + +MAN PROPOSES; or, The Romance of +John Alden Shaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.90 + +GO GET 'EM! The True Adventures of an +American Aviator of the Lafayette Flying +Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.50 +By Eliot H. Robinson and Lieutenant +William A. Wellman. + +WITH OLD GLORY IN BERLIN; or, The +Story of an American Girl's Life and +Trials in Germany and Her Escape from +the Huns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.00 +By Eliot H. Robinson and Josephine +Therese. + +THE PAGE COMPANY + +53 BEACON STREET, BOSTON + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +[Illustration: "A MAN AND A WOMAN--AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING" (See +Page 374)] + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +"SMILES" + +A ROSE OF THE CUMBERLANDS + +BY +ELIOT H. ROBINSON +Author of "Man Proposes" + +ILLUSTRATED BY +H. WESTON TAYLOR + +THE PAGE COMPANY +BOSTON--PUBLISHERS + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, 1919, by +The Page Company + +Entered at Stationers' Hall, London + +All rights reserved + +First Impression, May, 1919 +Second Impression, June, 1919 +Third Impression, July, 1919 +Fourth Impression, August, 1919 +Fifth Impression, September, 1919 +Sixth Impression, October, 1919 +Seventh Impression, December, 1919 +Eighth Impression, February, 1920 +Ninth Impression, September, 1920 +Tenth Impression, August, 1921 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO MY BOYS +This Story of a Girl +Who Loved Children +IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The Keynote of Life is Love-- +Lacking it, naught is worth while-- +The Symbol of Service, the Cross +And the Sign of Courage, A Smile. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT + +I wish to acknowledge, most gratefully, the valuable assistance rendered +to me, in the preparation of the chapters dealing with the medical and +hospital incidents, by Robert W. Guiler, M.D.; by Alonzo J. Shadman, +M.D., to whom I am indebted for my description of the unusual operation +in Chapter XXI; and by Miss Elizabeth E. Sullivan, Superintendent of +Nurses at the Boston Children's Hospital. And, above all, I desire to +make acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude that I owe to Mr. Henry +Wightman Packer for his helpful criticism throughout the writing of this +story. + +ELIOT HARLOW ROBINSON. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. DONALD MACDONALD, M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + + II. ENTER BIG JERRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 + + III. AN INNOCENT SERPENT IN EDEN . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + + IV. "SMILES" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 + + V. GIVING AND RECEIVING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + + VI. AN UNACCEPTED CHALLENGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + + VII. "SMILES'" GIFT AND THE "WRITING" . . . . . . . . . 66 + + VIII. SOME OF SEVERAL EPISTLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + + IX. THE HIGH HILLS, AND "GOD'S MAN" . . . . . . . . . 91 + + X. "SMILES'" CONSECRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + + XI. ADOPTION BY BLOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + + XII. THE THREE OF HEARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 + + XIII. GATHERING CLOUDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 + + XIV. SOWING THE WIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 + + XV. REAPING THE WHIRLWIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 + + XVI. THE AFTERMATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 + + XVII. THE PARTING PLEDGE AND PASSING DAYS . . . . . . . 171 + + XVIII. THE ADDED BURDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 + + XIX. "SMILES'" APPEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + + XX. THE ANSWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + + XXI. A MODERN MIRACLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 + + XXII. VICARIOUS ATONEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 + + XXIII. TWO LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 + + XXIV. NEW SCENES, NEW FRIENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 + + XXV. THE FIRST MILESTONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 + + XXVI. THE CALL OF THE RED CROSS . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 + + XXVII. THE GOAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 + + XXVIII. "BUT A ROSE HAS THORNS" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 + + XXIX. AN INTERLUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 + + XXX. DONALD'S HOMECOMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 + + XXXI. THE VALLEY OF INDECISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 + + XXXII. THE STORM AND THE SACRIFICE . . . . . . . . . . . 341 + + XXXIII. WHAT THE CRICKET HEARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 + + XXXIV. A LOST BROTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 + + XXXV. THE HALLOWED MOON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + PAGE + +"A man and a woman--as it was in the +beginning" (See Page 374) . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece + +"One dusty, but dainty, foot was held +between her hands" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 + +"She was kneeling beside a low, rounded mound" . . . . . . 48 + +"Read the brief article twice, mechanically, +and almost without understanding" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 + +"Holding the girl in clinging white close to him" . . . . . 347 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +CHAPTER I + +DONALD MACDONALD, M.D. + + +The man came to a stop, a look of humiliation and deep self-disgust on +his bronzed face. With methodical care he leaned his rifle against the +seamed trunk of a forest patriarch and drew the sleeve of his hunting +shirt across his forehead, now glistening with beads of sweat; then, and +not until then, did he relieve his injured feelings by giving voice to a +short but soul-satisfying expletive. + +At the sound of his deep voice the dog, which had, panting, dropped at +his feet after a wild, purposeless dash through the underbrush, looked +up with bright eyes whose expression conveyed both worship and a +question, and, as the man bent and stroked his wiry coat, rustled the +pine needles with his stubby tail. + +The picture held no other animate creatures, and no other sound +disturbed the silence of the woods. + +By the hunter's serviceable nickeled timepiece the afternoon was not +spent; but the sun was already swinging low over the western +mountaintop, and its slanting rays, as they filtered through the leafy +network overhead, had begun to take on the richer gold of early evening, +and the thick forest foliage of oddly intermingled oak and pine, beech +and poplar, was assuming deeper, more velvety tones. There was solemn +beauty in the scene; but, for the moment, the man was out of tune with +the vibrant color harmonies, and he frankly stated the reason in his +next words, which were addressed to his unlovely canine companion, whose +sagacity more than compensated for his appealing homeliness. + +"Mike, we're lost!" + +City born and bred though he was, the man took a not unjustifiable pride +in the woodcraft which he had acquired during many vacations spent in +the wilds; hence it was humiliating to have to admit that fact--even to +his dog. To be sure, the fastnesses of the border Cumberlands were new +to him; but his vanity was hurt by the realization that he had tramped +for nearly an hour through serried ranks of ancient trees and crowding +thickets of laurel and rhododendron--which seemed to take a personal +delight in impeding the progress of a "furriner"--and over craggy rocks, +only to find, at the end of that time, that he was entering one end of a +short ravine from the other end of which he had started with the vague +purpose of seeking the path by which he had climbed from the valley +village. + +Moreover, a subtle change was taking place in the air. Faint breezes, +the sighing heralds of advancing evening, were now beginning to steal +slowly out from the picturesque, seamed rocks of the ravine and from +behind each gnarled or stately tree, with an unmistakable warning. + +There was clearly but one logical course for him to pursue--head +straight up the mountainside until he should arrive at some commanding +clearing whence he could recover his lost bearings and establish some +landmarks for a fresh start downward. With his square jaw set in a +decisive manner, the man picked up his gun, threw back his heavy +shoulders, and began to climb, driving his muscular body forcibly +through the underbrush. + +The decision and the action were both characteristic of Donald +MacDonald, in whose Yankee veins ran the blood of a dour and purposeful +Scottish clan. Aggressive determination showed in every lineament of his +face, of which his nearest friend, Philip Bentley, had once said, "The +Great Sculptor started to carve a masterpiece, choosing granite rather +than marble as his medium, and was content to leave it rough hewn." +Every feature was strong and rugged, which gave his countenance an +expression masterful to the point of being almost surly when it was in +repose; but it was a face which caused most men--and women over +thirty--to turn for a second glance. + +To-day, the effect of strength was further enhanced by a week's growth +of blue-black beard. But his eyes, agate gray and flecked with the green +of the "moss" variety, were the real touchstones of his character, and +they belied the stern lines of his mouth and chin and spoke eloquently +of a warm, kindly heart within the powerful body, a body which, to the +city dweller, suggested the fullback on a football team. Indeed, such he +had been in those days when great power counted more heavily than speed +and agility. Not but that he possessed these attributes as well, in a +degree unusual in one who tipped the scales at one hundred and ninety. + +To some it seemed an inexplicable anomaly that a man of his type should +have selected, as the work to which he had dedicated his life, the +profession of medicine, and still more strange that he had become a +specialist in the diseases of children. Yet such was the case, and many +a mother, whose heartstrings were plucked by the lean fingers of +Despair, had cause to bless the almost uncanny surgical skill which his +highly-trained brain exercised through the medium of his big, spatulate, +gentle fingers. + +As "Mac" had, in the old days, smashed his way through the opposing line +of blue-jerseyed giants on the football field, and as he now plowed +through the laurel and rhododendron, so had he won his way to the +forefront of the younger generation of his profession until, at the age +of thirty-five, he had become recognized as one of the most able +children's specialists in America. A "man's man," blunt of speech to the +point of often offending at first the cultured women with whom his +labors brought him into contact, he was worshipped in hundreds of homes +as an angel of mercy in strange guise, and was the idol of hundreds of +little folk to whom he had brought new health and happiness. + +The toilsome upward climb brought its reward at length, and Donald's eye +caught sight of a clearing, and unmistakable signs of near-by +civilization, if a scattering mountain settlement of primitive dwellers +in that feudal country which lies half in West Virginia, half in +Kentucky, may be so designated. + +No sooner had he stepped into the partially cleared land, and caught +sight of a small, isolated cabin beyond, so toned by wind and weather +that it seemed almost an integral part of its natural surroundings, than +his own presence was detected, as the sharp and surly barking of an +unseen dog evidenced. Mike made answer to the challenge, and instantly +other, more distant, canine voices joined in the growing clamor. + +As man and dog advanced across the clearing, not one, but half a dozen +gaunt curs, summoned to the spot by a warning which meant the approach +of a stranger, much as their clannish masters might have been in other +years, mysteriously appeared from all sides and rushed forward, their +lips drawn back from threatening teeth, their bristling throats rumbling +ominously. + +Donald sharply commanded the likewise bristling Mike to keep to heel, +threw his rifle to hip and backed hastily toward the cabin. He had no +wish to employ his weapon, and as retreat was the other alternative, for +his companion's sake, if not his own, indeed, discretion seemed to be, +by all odds, valor's better part. + +A noisy and exciting moment brought him to the cabin's door, still face +to the enemy. Fumbling behind him with his left hand, Donald found and +lifted the latch. The door swung suddenly open under his weight, Mike +scurried between his legs, and the combination resulted in his downfall, +precipitate and sprawling. + +Simultaneously came a startled exclamation in a treble voice, the +clatter of a fallen kettle and then a quick cry of pain. + +In an instant Donald had scrambled ungracefully to his feet and found +himself face to face with a picture that he was destined never to +forget. + +Backed by a big stone fireplace, in which the embers were glowing +ruddily, stood a young girl clad in a simple one-piece dress, which left +neck, arms and legs bare. One dusty, but dainty, foot was held between +her hands, while she balanced on the other. A tumbling mass of rich +brown curls, shot with gleaming threads like tiny rays of captive +sunshine, fell, unbound, over her shoulders, and partly veiled a +childlike face, tanned to an Indian brown and now twisted with pain, but +nevertheless so startlingly sweet and appealing that the man gasped in +astonishment. + +[Illustration: "ONE DUSTY, BUT DAINTY, FOOT WAS HELD BETWEEN HER +HANDS"] + +As it is with many who wear bluntness like a cloak, Donald possessed a +deep-seated appreciation of the beautiful, without being capable of +expressing it. But now he vaguely realized that here, where he would +last have looked for it, he had blundered upon a child whom Mother +Nature had designed lovingly and with painstaking care, perhaps in order +to satisfy herself that, in the bustle of creation which nowadays left +her little time for attention to fine detail, her hands had not wholly +lost the cunning which was theirs when the world was young and women +were few and fair. + +Her face had the qualities of a sweet wild-flower, delicate of form yet +hardy enough to stand up under the stress of a storm. A critic might +have declared the sensitive mouth a shade too broad for the tapering +lines which formed the firmly rounded chin; he might have said that the +upper lip, against which its companion was now tightly pressed to check +its trembling, was too short for classic beauty; but he would hardly +have been able to find a flaw in the molding of the straight, slender +nose or the broad forehead, or the cheeks which curved as symmetrically +as the petals of a damask rose, or--if he were human--with the faint +shadows at the corners of the lips which were not dimples, but +fascinatingly suggested them. But, above all, it was the child's eyes, +heavy with a sudden rush of unshed tears that merely added to their +appealing charm, which left the strongest impression on the man. They +were remarkable eyes, long of lash and of a deep blue with limpid +purple shadows and golden highlights. + +Her form, untrammelled by confining clothing and bending naturally, was +slender and lithesome, but full of curves which told that the bud of +childhood was just beginning to open into the blossom of early +maturity--about fifteen or sixteen years old, Donald guessed her to be. + +At her feet lay an overturned kettle the contents from which, a simple +stew, was sending up a cloud of steam from the rough floor, and +explained the reason for the misty eyes and tenderly nursed ankle. + +The whole picture was graven on his mind in a single glance; but, the +next instant the sunniest, most appealing of smiles broke through the +girl's pain-drawn tears. + +"Yo' ... yo' looked so funny a-fallin' over thet thar dawg, an' +a-rollin' on the floor," her words bubbled forth. + +"I'm glad that you have something to laugh about, but dev ... deucedly +sorry that I made you burn yourself, child," answered Donald, awkwardly. +"It must hurt like the ... the mischief," he added, as he stepped +forward to examine the injury with a quick return to his professional +manner. + +"Wall, hit _do_ burn, kinder. But taint nothin'." She sniffed bravely, +but a tear overflowed its reservoir and made a channel through a smudge +on her cheek. + +"Well, I happen to be a doctor--when I'm not on a vacation--so I can do +a little toward repairing the damage I caused." He was already +unfastening the small first-aid kit which experience had taught him +never to go without. + +"Taint nothin', sir, really. I'll jest put some lard on hit, an' ..." +began the girl, timidly backing away. + +Donald did not stop to argue, but placed his strong hands on either side +of her slender waist and lifted her lightly to the homemade table, while +she gasped and again the wonderful smile, more shy this time, +transformed her tear-stained face. In silence, and with flying, +experienced fingers, the physician applied a soothing salve to the +blotchy red, fast-swelling burn on the ankle, and deftly bandaged it. + +"There," he said. "You won't know, in a few minutes, that anything has +happened." + +"Thank ye, sir," said the girl, as he lifted her again and allowed her +to slip gently to the floor. "Yo' shore knows how ter do up a foot." + +She hopped gingerly over to the fireplace, and began to clear up the +wreck of supper, first calmly lifting the dog away from the steaming hot +meat which his quivering nose was inquisitively approaching. + +"Be careful. Mike might ..." + +"Oh, he won't bite _me_." She broke into his warning, and gave a playful +tug at the coarse hair on the animal's neck. Somewhat to Donald's +surprise, the dog wiggled ecstatically at the friendly advances and paid +his lowly homage by licking her bare foot. + +"Never mind that mess, I'll clean it up if you'll get me a shovel. And +of course I mean to pay for it," said Donald hastily. + +"In course yo' won't do no sech thing. We-all's got plenty uv +pertaties,--I growed 'em myself,--this yere meat haint hurt a mite, an' +water's cheap," she responded. "Yo' jest take a cheer, mister, an' yo' +kin hev supper along with us as soon as grandpap comes, which'll be +right soon, I reckon. We-all don't see stranger folks much up yere, an' +he'll be plumb glad thet ye drapped in." She tossed a morsel of meat to +the expectant Mike; then added shyly, "An' so be I." + +"Well, I certainly 'drapped,'" laughed Donald. "It looked as though all +the dogs south of the Mason-Dixon line had gathered to give Mike and me +a warm, if not cordial, welcome, so we didn't stop to knock before +coming in." + +"Lucky fer ye thet yo' struck a cabin whar the latch string air allus +out," she answered, her silver laughter echoing his. "I hadn't a' ought +ter hev been so skeered, but I warn't payin' no attention ter all the +barkin', fer I jest allowed thet the dawgs hed treed a coon, er somep'n. +Yo' see they haint exactly fond o' strangers, an' they be powerful +fierce. I reckon they'd hev gobbled Mike right up." + +Donald glanced affectionately at the wiry mass of bone and sinew which +went to make the police dog every inch a warrior, and doubted it. The +child had finished her task, and started the stew to heating again over +the fire, and now she turned, swept back the mass of curls from her +heated face with a graceful motion of her shapely arm, and stood +regarding him with frank curiosity. Donald had no intention of +remaining longer, or accepting the hospitable invitation, but there +was a touch of romance in the adventure, and a strong appeal in the +girl herself, which caused him to hesitate, and linger to ask a few +questions about the neighborhood and her life. When he did regretfully +pick up his cap and rifle, and call the dog, who turned protestingly +from her-who-dispensed-savory-pieces-of-meat, he found that he had +suffered the fate of all who hesitate, for a glance through the window +showed him that, although the glowing, iridescent reflection from the +western sky still lingered in the mountain top, embroidering its edge +with gold, it was fast fading, and already Night had spread her dusky +mantle over the eastern slope. Already darkness had blotted out the +lower reaches. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ENTER BIG JERRY + + +As Donald stopped, uncertain, there came the sound of measured, heavy +footfalls on the beaten dirt path outside the cabin. The girl's face +lighted up joyfully; she hopped to the door, flung it open, and a +slightly stooping, but gigantic, form stepped in out of the darkness, +caught her up in his huge arms and submitted with a quizzical smile +while she pulled his face toward hers by tugging at his long beard, and +kissed him. + +Across the tumbled masses of her hair the newcomer's still piercing dark +eyes, blinking a little under their shaggy brows as the fire leaped in +the draft from the open door, caught sight of Donald as he stood back +among the shadows. He straightened up suddenly, and his brows drew +together in a suspicious scowl. + +The city man knew enough of the primitive code of the mountain people to +understand that the presence of a man,--especially a strange man,--alone +in the house with a young woman, was fraught with unpleasant +possibilities. But, before he could speak, the child-woman had launched +into a vivacious, if ungrammatical, explanation and story of what had +occurred. In substantiation she now raised her short skirt and lifted +the bandaged foot, with utter freedom from embarrassment, and laughed +deliciously until an answering smile crept slowly into the eyes of the +old mountaineer. + +With a simple courtesy, which seemed to hold something of innate +majesty, he stepped forward, and extended a weatherbeaten hand, several +sizes larger than Donald's, and boomed out in a deep voice that matched +his physical proportions, "Yo're suttinly welcome, stranger. What +happened warn't no fault o' yourn, and I'm plumb obleeged ter ye fer +fixin' up my granddarter's hurt. Draw up a cheer fer the stranger, +Smiles, he'll jine us in a bite er supper. The fare's simple, but I war +raised on't, and 'pears ter me thet I top ye some." + +"I should say that you did. You make me feel small, and it's not often +any man does that ... physically, I mean." + +The two clasped hands, and Donald winced as his own powerful fingers +cracked under the crushing pressure of those of the older man, who +seemed to take a boyish delight in this display of his tremendous +strength. + +"What a colossus he is," thought Donald, as he gritted his teeth to keep +back the involuntary exclamation of pain, for, although the massive +shoulders and Jovian head of the mountaineer were stooped forward, he +towered fully three inches above the six foot city athlete, and his +iron-gray beard, rusted with tobacco juice about his mouth, swept over +his chest almost to his waist. + +"Thanks for the invitation," he said aloud, as he covertly nursed his +right hand. "It's mighty kind of you, but I don't want to impose longer, +and, besides, I'd better start back to Fayville before it gets dark +altogether. If you'll just tell me the most direct way, ..." + +"Wall, I reckon the most _dee_rect way air ter go straight through the +woods thar a piece, an' then jump off'n a four hundred foot cliff," the +old man chuckled titanically. "But I likewise reckon taint pra'tical; +leastwise, not onless yo' happen ter be one o' them new-fangled +aviationeers I've hearn tell on. However, here ye be, an' here yo're +goin' ter stay twill atter supper. Come, child. Sot on another plate fer +the doctor man." + +"Donald MacDonald's my name, sir." + +"Peers like yo'r paw stuttered when he give yo' thet name," laughed the +giant. "Mine's Jerry Webb--'Big Jerry,' they mostwise calls me +hyarerbouts." There was simple pride in the nickname evident in his +voice. + +"Of course, if you really want me to stay, I'd be glad enough to do it, +Mr. Webb, although I don't like to cause any more trouble for Miss ..." + +"'Rose' air the given name of my leetle gal, but folks gener'ly calls +her Smiles, fer short." The old man spoke with a noticeable tenderness +toning his big voice. + +"And there's no need of explaining the reason," answered Donald in a low +aside so that the child, who was busy over the stewing kettle on its +primitive crane, might not hear. "I never expect to see another to equal +hers." + +His host sent a sharp glance at him, then, softening, it travelled to +the graceful form of the girl silhouetted against the ruddy glow of the +open fire, whose reflection outlined her warm flesh with a tint of +burnished copper. + +"Yes," he responded simply. "Seems like, when thet leetle gal's sweet +face lights up with a smile, hit's like a sunbeam a-breakin' through the +leaves an' playin' on a waterpool in the quiet woods." + +"Oh," interrupted Rose with a cry. "I done plumb ferget ter git the milk +from Uncle Perly's, but 'twon't take more'n a minute. Kin I take Mike?" +she added, pleadingly, as she buried her slim fingers in the rough hair +on the dog's neck, while he stood sniffing acquaintance with the huge +boots and homespun pantaloons of the giant. + +"Sure; that is if you're not still afraid that the neighbors' dogs will +make a meal of him," smiled Donald, and the object of the conversation, +who seemed to sense its meaning, sprang eagerly erect and placed his +forepaws on the girl's breast. + +"No dawg haint a-goin' ter tetch him whilst he's with me," she responded +with quiet assurance. "Come, Mickey." + +"Which air a fact," supplemented her grandfather, as girl and dog +disappeared with a rush and a bark. "Dumb beasts an' children worships +Smiles--an' hit haint scarse to be wondered at, fer she love 'em all. +An' she's more rememberful than her grandpappy. Yo' see, we don't +gener'ly hev milk fer our coffee, 'ceptin' when company comes." + +In some distress at this frank announcement, Donald said, "But I don't +like to have you put yourselves out for me. I wouldn't have stayed +if...." + +"Now, don't let thet idee disturb ye a mite. We're glad ter hev ye with +us, an' what fer air friends ef hit haint ter be an excuse fer a leetle +extry celebration? Set down, set down thar." + +Donald obeyed, and, while his host moved ponderously about, depositing +the contents of a bundle which he had brought, studied his surroundings +curiously. It was his first experience within a real "feud country" +cabin, and he was interested to see how closely its appearance coincided +with what his imagination had painted from reading fiction woven about +them. To his quiet delight he found that it might almost have served as +an illustration for such a book, as, one by one, he mentally checked off +the salient features. There were the hand-hewn timbers of wall and +unsheathed ceiling; the yawning rough stone fireplace with its wrought +iron crane, and, above it, a rifle whose unusual length proclaimed its +ownership; the strings of dried herbs and red pepper pods--few, to be +sure, and dusty with age--suspended from the rafters; and, in one +corner, a crude ladder leading into the loft. + +Only one thing was missing, the wall-beds or bunks, for the hand of +civilization had pointed to one improvement, and doors, obviously not a +part of the original simple structure, opened into a small addition, +roughly partitioned into two sleeping rooms. They were of equal size, +but there was no need of labels to proclaim their occupants, for one was +so nearly filled with a bed which would have served for Golden Locks' +biggest bear, that the rough clothing which was suspended from wooden +pegs on the opposite wall hung against it, whereas the other contained, +besides a narrow bed, a small chest of drawers with a cheap mirror above +it, and a chair. The one window was draped with a daintily-flowered +material, which Donald decided was calico, a cover of the same material +lay across the chest, and on it--in the place of honor between an old +comb and brush stood a small blue-and-white jar, whose cheaply glazed +surface caught the flicker of the fire and winked at him as though it +were aware of the absurdity of anything so trivial being held in such +high esteem. More of the "calico," which really was an inexpensive but +tasteful chintz, hung against the wall and served to hide from prying +eyes the child's meagre wardrobe, and a bow of it was perkily tied to +the back of the chair. + +Donald smiled his amusement and caught an answering grin on Big Jerry's +face. "She haint like we-all," he said. "Wants ter hev bright an' purty +things erbout, an' ..." he lowered his voice, "durned ef she didn't make +me a _necktie_ of thet thar stuff--seen one on a 'furriner' once." The +visitor felt a warm satisfaction over the thought that his own costume +didn't include such excess adornment. + +"I put hit on ... once, ter please her, but I reckon hit didn't make +much of a showin' under _this_." He ran his fingers reflectively through +his heavy beard for a moment; then, with his voice still a forte +whisper, he added, "Say, stranger, I've got a leetle drap o' white +liquor hid out in the woodshed whar Smiles kaint find hit, an' ef yo'd +delight ter wet yo'r throat afore she comes back, why ..." + +The door flew open with a bang, and Rose and Mike tore in, panting and +a-glitter with diamond drops of rain. Instantly the expression of simple +guile on the old man's face changed so ludicrously to one of overdone +innocence that it was all Donald could do to keep from laughing. + +"Storm's a-comin'," cried the girl, gayly, while the dog rushed madly +around the room, with his nose to the floor and barking hilariously, +until his master seized him by the back and held him, squirming. A flash +of distant lightning substantiated the announcement, and a few seconds +later their ears caught the crescendo reverberations of thunder as it +echoed down the valley. + +Mike growled uneasily and crouched close to his master's legs, but Rose +ran again to the door and stood, heedless of the rain which beat in +upon her wind-whipped skirt, peering out with evident delight. A still +more vivid, zigzag flash rent the serried masses of black storm-clouds +which were rolling up over the mountain's top, edging the nearer one +with fire, and she laughed merrily and clapped her hands like a child. + +"Shet thet door, yo' young vixen," bellowed Big Jerry, plainly +disturbed. The girl obeyed, and gave him a kiss, and the whining dog a +reassuring pat, as she hurried back to finish setting the table--a +simple matter, for there was no spotless damask, glittering silver and +cut glass to deck the white-scoured top of the plain slab which formed a +substantial table for many purposes. + +In a moment she had announced, quite informally, that supper was served; +but, just as the two men arose to take their places, there came a long +"hulloo-oo" above the sound of wind and rain. Again Rose dashed to the +door, with the cry, "Why, thet's Judd Amos; I knows his call." + +Without reason or warning Donald experienced a quick tightening about +his heart, the absurdity of which caused him to smile. What on earth was +it to him if this mountain child's color heightened a shade at a +familiar call in a masculine voice? + +The next instant a tall youth, as lean and sinewy as an Indian, stumbled +into the room, with his rough coat about his head, and water streaming +from his drenched clothing and the barrel of a gun, which was every whit +as modern and efficient as Donald's own. + +"Gosh a'mighty," he said. "Thought I'd be drownded, shore. Hit's a-goin' +ter be a rip-snorter ... worst storm er the summer, by the way hit's +started." Then, as he dashed the rain from his eyes, and, for the first +time caught sight of the visitor, he stopped short in none too pleased +surprise, if the black look which went toward Donald from beneath his +lowering brows meant anything. + +"Make ye acquainted with Donald MacDonald, a doctor man from the city, +Judd," boomed the giant's hearty voice. "Doc, shake hands with a +neighbor uv ourn, Judd Amos." + +As Donald stood up he managed to silence Mike's throaty growl with a +warning shove with his foot. The men formally clasped hands, their eyes +looking steadily into each other's from the same level, and this time, +primed by his earlier experience, the city man exerted all of his +strength, and felt a glow of childish satisfaction as the other winced. + +"Set ye down, Judd. Draw a cheer up by the fire, yo're soaked," said Big +Jerry. "Honey-rose," he added, addressing the girl in a wheedling tone, +"Judd 'pears ter be powerful soaked an' cold. Kaint he ... kaint we-all +hev jest a drap o' white liquor?" + +He stroked his beard and pushed aside his drooping mustache in +anticipation, but to no avail, for her answer, uttered firmly and with +no suggestion of a smile in her deep eyes this time, was, "'Deed yo' +kaint; nary a drap. Yo' know, an' Juddy, _he_ knows ..." to Donald +there seemed to be some special significance in her words, "thet thar +haint a-goin' ter be nary a drap o' thet devil's brew in house o' mine. +Why, I be plumb s'prised at ye, grandpap." + +The tremendous old man rubbed his whiskers faster and hemmed +apologetically. "In course I haint got none ... in the cabin ..." he +glanced quickly at Donald, "an' I didn't mean nothin', Smiles. Come, +swing yo'r cheer erround ter the table, Judd, we'll jest fergit the +eeliments, an' enjoy a dry celebration in the doctor's honor ... all +'cept Judd, he air plenty wet," he added, in a jocose attempt to turn +his mistake into a jest. "Rose hurted her foot, an' doc, he done hit up +fer her real nice." + +More bashfully than before, the girl extended the injured member in its +now mud-bedraggled bandage for the newcomer's inspection. + +Donald had been watching the scene with quiet amusement over the child's +assurance, and had noticed not only the look of sorrowful resignation on +her grandfather's face, but the dull flush which mounted the swarthy +cheeks of the younger man. Judd's mouth retained the straight line for +some time, but a quick burst of light-hearted song on Smiles' lips, as +she turned to dish up the savory stew, showed that the incident was +forgotten by her as soon as it was ended. + +"Better let me lift it down for you," said Donald, as she swung the +crane with its heavy iron kettle from the fire. "We don't want any more +burns here to-night." + +He jumped up and acted on the words without giving the matter a thought, +but it seemed to him that the girl's pleased, "Thank ye, sir," was a bit +embarrassed, and that the men regarded him with blank surprise. Not for +a minute did it dawn upon him that his act had not been according to the +code of the mountains. + +They were all seated at last, but yet another surprise was in store for +the visitor, for Rose folded her hands, bent her head until the curls +veiled the glowing face, and began a simple blessing. Big Jerry sat bolt +upright with his eyes screwed up ludicrously, and, although Judd bent +his head the merest fraction, it was with obvious embarrassment, and his +flashing optics kept sending suspicious glances at the "furriner" as +though to discover if he were laughing at them all. In fact, nothing was +further from Donald's mind. It had been long since he had partaken of a +meal at which grace was said, but the simple, homely words touched a +chord of memory and made it vibrate to a note which brought both pain +and pleasure. + +The host's stentorian "Amen" was the signal for attack, and for a time +the business of satisfying the demands of healthy hunger was paramount +to all things else. It was no feast of wit and wisdom, but of something, +for the time being, more desirable, and the application of the other +three gave Donald an opportunity to study covertly the unusual group of +which he had so unexpectedly become a part. + +Although he was essentially a man of action, his brusqueness of manner +was, in part at least, a pose which had become unconscious, and, deep +within his heart, in a chamber carefully locked from the gaze of his +fellow men, dwelt Romance and Imagination--the spirit gifts of a mother, +whose death, five years before, had brought him his first black grief. +Had this visioning power been lacking in him he could never have +accomplished the modern miracles which he had already wrought many times +in constructive and restorative surgery. Now, the spirit of imagery in +his soul was stirred by something in the romantic unreality of his +surroundings--the rude, yet interesting room which served all family +purposes save that of slumber; the mellow radiance from a crude lamp and +the ever-changing light of the open fire; the long, wavering shadows +within the cabin; and, without, the banshee wailing of the storm wind +around the eaves, the occasional crash of thunder, the creaking of limbs +and fitful dashes of rain. He found himself leaning back in his chair +and mentally attempting to dissect and study not the bodies, but the +personalities, of the three who were the representatives of a type, in +manners and customs at least, new to him. + +In his boyhood, and before the pressing demands of his profession had +enslaved him, Donald had been an insatiate reader, and now he +endeavored to recall to memory some of the stories which he had read +about this strange people, whose dwelling place was within the limits of +the busy, progressive East, yet who were surprisingly isolated from it +by natural barriers, and still more so by traditions slow to perish. +Pure of stock he knew them to be, for their unmixed blood had had its +fountain source in the veins of some of America's best and earliest +settlers; primitive in their ideals, strong in their simple purposes and +passions, the products of, and perhaps even now factors in, blood feuds +whose beginnings dated back generations. And, although he laughed at +himself for his imaginings as he remembered that the twentieth century +was ten years old, he found himself assigning both the men places in his +memory picture. + +Big Jerry, slow of speech, patriarchal in looks and bearing, powerful in +body, became, to his mind's eye, the venerable chieftain of a mountain +clan. Judd, with his aquiline face, which was undoubtedly handsome in a +dark, brooding way, beneath its uncombed shock of black hair which swept +low over his forehead, sinewy with the strength, quickness and muck of +the natural grace of a panther, was the typical outlaw of the hills. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN INNOCENT SERPENT IN EDEN + + +Donald turned his appraising gaze upon the child, and here the illusion +yielded to another, quite different. + +Even her primitive dress, her unbound hair, her crude forms of speech +and soft, drawling intonation--such as the throaty, unvarying +pronunciation of "the" as though it were "ther," and "a" like +"er"--which sounded so deliciously odd to his New England ears, could +not erase from his mind the impression that she did not belong in the +picture. To be sure he had, during his tramps, already seen many a wild +mountain flower so delicately sweet that it seemed out of place amid its +stern environment. But Rose affected him differently, although the +difference was subtle, indefinable. + +In the company of the men he was conscious of the reserve which one of +his type instinctively feels when first in the presence of people of +another race or class. With her he was already wholly at his ease. +Donald finally attributed this to the fact that she was, after all, +merely a child--one of a class which is akin the world over, and which +he understood better than any other. + +As the simple meal progressed, Big Jerry began to ply the visitor with +questions, and press him to talk on many subjects connected with the +wide world of men; and, as Donald's natural reticence yielded to the +naive interrogations, he answered with a readiness which somewhat +surprised even himself. The child ate little; but sat with her elbows on +the table, her firmly rounded chin resting on her clasped hands, and +drank in his words. Her luminous eyes were fixed on his face, and +expressions of wonder and delight chased each other across her own +countenance, like wavering light and shade on a placid pool. + +Judd, too, remained silent, ill at ease, and his dark, morose eyes ever +shifted from the face of the man to that of the girl. Once, while Donald +and his host were engaged in an animated discussion, he awkwardly +attempted to draw Rose into personal conversation; but he relapsed again +into moody silence when he received a frank, though smiling, rebuff. +Clearly the meal was not an enjoyable one for him. + +All things of human invention come to an end, and at last Big Jerry +lifted his towering frame from his chair to indicate that the supper was +over. With obvious relief Judd crossed to the door and, opening it, +announced that the storm had nearly passed. It was still raining, +however. + +"Ef yo' air goin' back ter the village, stranger, I'll be pleased ter +sot ye on yo'r way," he announced as he drew on his coat, and to +Donald's mind the sentence carried an unmistakable _double entente_. + +Nevertheless he answered promptly, "Thanks, I'd be much obliged if you +would. Perhaps Mr. Webb can spare me a lantern, too, since these paths +are unfamiliar to ..." + +"Sho, yo haint a-goin' out er this house ter-night, friend," broke in +the old man. "Leastwise, ef yo'r willin' ter put up with sech +accommodations as the loft room offers ye. Thar haint no sense of yer +takin' er five-mile walk through them drenched bushes, an' gittin' +soaked yerself." + +"In course yer goin' ter stay," echoed the girl, with childlike delight. +"Besides, I wants ter hear lots more erbout the city an' city folks." + +"But I have already imposed enough on your hospitality," protested +Donald, hesitatingly, since the invitation held a strong appeal for him. + +"Yo' haint imposed at all. Set yo'rself down. I shore appreciates yo'r +company." + +Judd scowled from the doorway, then flung back over his shoulder a +short, "Wall, I reckon I'll be startin' home now," and, without further +words, he went out, closing the door behind him with unnecessary +violence. Donald said nothing, but he was frankly amused; for it was +very apparent that the young mountaineer felt that he had a proprietary +interest in Rose, and was undisguisedly jealous of the stranger who was +held in such high favor. + +Rose, however, lost no time thinking of her lover,--if lover she regarded +him,--but flew about the final household duties, humming happily, and +now and then breaking into unfinished snatches of song like a wild wood +bird. Evidently the slight burn no longer troubled her and was already +forgotten. + +Her work finished, she joined the two men, who were smoking their pipes +before the blazing fire, and seated herself crosslegged at her +grandfather's feet. Mike got up leisurely from his post beneath his +master's chair, stretched forward and back, yawned prodigiously, and +then lay down with his shaggy head on the girl's bare legs. As Donald +talked, Rose played with the dog, rolling him over and rubbing his +underbody until his mouth opened in a grotesque animal imitation of her +own wonderful smile, which constantly flashed to her lips like a ray of +light, only to vanish as swiftly, and leave its slowly fading afterglow +in her deep eyes. + +"Dr. Mac," said the child timidly, during a moment of contented silence, +her natural use of his intimate nickname, both startling and pleasing +Donald, "yo-all allowed thet yo' doctored children mostly. I loves +babies more'n anything else in the world, 'ceptin' only grandpap; +they're so purty an' sweet an' helpless-like, thet I reckon the Lord +loves 'em powerful, an' the' haint nothin' finer then takin' keer of +'em." + +Donald nodded with pleasure, and the girl continued, dreamily: + +"I allows thet, when God made people an' put the breath o' life inter +them, he hadn't quite got outer his mind what he done on an earlier day, +an' was jest improvin' on hit; fer hit sorter seems ter me thet big men +an' women air like growin' trees, fashioned fer ter stand up agin ther +eliments an' storms most times; but babies air like tiny leetle +flowers--so weak an' tender thet we hev ter take mighty good keer of +'em. Don't yo' never feel, somehow, like yo' was tendin' a gyarden of +purty flowers, an' a-drivin' away the grubs an' bugs what would make 'em +wilt an' die?" + +"To be sure I do, my child," he answered, wondering if she realized how +apt was her simile, since most disease is, indeed, caused by "bugs an' +grubs." "And many people, with imaginations like yours, have felt +exactly the same. Did you ever read a poem called 'The Reaper'? No, I +suppose not," he added, as the girl shook her curls, while a wistful +look crept into her eyes. + +"It was written by Longfellow, a very famous poet who used to live near +my home city of Boston, and no man ever loved little children better +than he did. I had to learn the verses years ago when I was a schoolboy, +and I remember the first of them still:-- + + "'There is a Reaper, whose name is Death, + And, with his sickle keen, + He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, + And the flowers that grow between.' + +"For--he has the Reaper say--the Lord has need of the pretty flowers to +make his garden in Heaven more bright and fair." + +"I never thought er thet," said the girl seriously, "but I reckon hit's +so. Grandpap's bearded like the grain, but somehow he 'pears ter me more +like er big pine tree, fer grain bends before ther wind, an' he haint +never bent ter no storm." + +"And I? Am I a tree, too," queried Donald with amusement. + +She studied him judiciously and then answered with quiet assurance, +"Yo're the oak. Hit don't bend, neither." + +"And yourself?" + +"Why," she laughed, "I'm jest a rose like my name. A rose jest growrn' +inter er bush." + +"To be sure you are. Except that roses have thorns." + +"I hev thorns, too," she said with conviction, and Donald doubted +it--then. + +"I should plumb love ter take keer of babies an' make 'em well an' +strong like yo' do," she went on pensively. + +"Perhaps you may, someday. You'll have babies of your own." + +"Yes," was her simple reply, "I shall have babies ter love an' keer for, +but I meant thet I wanted ter help all little children." + +"A children's nurse, perhaps, like those who work with me," and he went +on to tell her graphically of the wonderful things done at the +Children's Hospital, upon the staff of which he was. + +Rose listened, as enchanted as a child with a fairy story,--and indeed +such it was, a modern fairy tale wherein medicine was a magic potion, +and the merciful knife a magic wand. Told in simple language which she +could understand, his story of the work in which his very life was bound +up seemed to her like an epic, and, when he paused, she drew her breath +with a sigh of keen delight, and cried, "Oh, granddaddy. Haint thet a +wonderful thing fer ter do? I shorely wants ter be a trained nurse like +thet when I grows up." + +"Perhaps you will, some day, who knows?" said Donald thoughtlessly. + +"An' what would this hyar old pine do without the rosebush blossomin' +close beside him? What would the leetle wild mountain flowers hyarabouts +do without thar Smiles ter take keer o' them?" asked the old man +tenderly, but with a hidden undercurrent of distress. + +"But ef I could larn ter take _better_ keer o' them ..." began the girl. + +The old man moved uneasily, then said, "Wall, yo're only a leetle +rosebud yerself now, an' hit's more'n time yo' closed up fer the night. +Run erlong ter bed, hon." + +Obedient, but a little rebellious, Rose got up slowly, kissed the +strong, weather-scarred cheek of the old man and turned toward the door +of her room. + +"Good night, Smiles," called Donald. She hesitated a moment, then ran +back to him with childish impetuosity, flung her slender arms about his +neck and kissed him, too, whispering, "I loves ye, Dr. Mac, fer thet yo' +loves little children." + +The frank embrace embarrassed him a little, and he felt the thrill of an +almost unknown glow in his heart. Many a time his patients--even those +as old as Rose--had kissed him thus; but something in her act left a new +impression. Judged by the standards of the mountain folks she was almost +a woman, and he knew it. + +Mike pattered to her door as it closed, scratched upon it with a low +whine, and then lay down close against it. + +There was a moment's silence in the room as the men, each busy with his +own thoughts, puffed steadily. Then Big Jerry carefully knocked the +ashes from his pipe and remarked, "Hit haint no fault er yourn, +stranger; but I haint altergether pleased at ther thoughts yo'r comin' +hes placed in my leetle gal's head. She won't easy ferget what yo' done +told her, an' ... an' I couldn't bear fer ter lose her." + +"I'm sorry. I spoke without thinking that it might result in her +becoming discontented," answered Don. "To-morrow I'll try to make her +understand--what is a fact--that although her loving heart might be ever +so eager, her ways and those of the city are so utterly different that +she couldn't possibly hope to go there and become a nurse such as I +described. You understand what I mean." + +"Yes, an' I'd be powerful obleeged ter ye, friend," replied the old man +with evident relief. "Hit's es yo' say. Rose air er mountain gal by +bringin' up, ef not by birth, an' 'tis hyar thet she rightfully belongs +now." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"SMILES" + + +"'Not by birth?'" echoed Donald, in surprise. "But I thought that she +was your granddaughter?" + +"An' so she be--or perhaps my darter," hastily answered Jerry, realizing +his error too late. "I reckon I shouldn't hev told ye," he added in +distress. + +"Don't let any such idea worry you, Mr. Webb. Where she came from is +nothing to me, and, indeed, after to-morrow I shall probably never see +her again. I've got to admit, though, that you have aroused my +curiosity, and I'd like to hear the story that's behind her presence +here, if you are willing to tell it." + +The giant hesitated, then said slowly, "Wall, I kaint think of no reason +why yo' shouldn't hyar hit. Hit happened this erway. + +"Twar one mornin', thirteen summers ergone, an' I war ergunnin' down in +ther woods er piece, not fur from ther Swift River. I rekerlect hit war +er purty mornin', with ther dew still er-clingin' ter ther grass, an' +sparklin'--like jewels, an' ther wood birds war singin' like they war +special happy. I clumb erround er big rock, an' all of er sudden I +seen--I seen er leetle mite of er gal, standin, thar, jest es still es +still. She warn't more'n three year old, I jedged, an' she suttinly +come from ther city, fer her leetle dress warn't like none I'd ever +seen--hit hed sorter loose panterloons ter hit, an', although her legs +war bare--an' all scratched an' bleedin'--thar war tiny socks an' shoes +on 'em. Thar war tears in her big blue eyes an' on her purty cheeks, but +she warn't cryin' none, then. No, sir; she war jest erstandin' an' +erlookin' up ter whar a robin war singin' in an oak tree, an' her leetle +mouth war open fer all ther world like a rosebud. Wall, es I stood thar, +erwatchin' like I'd seen er fairy, she smiles--yo' know thet smile of +her'n, like a rainbow breakin' fer er minute through the rain, an' then +fadin' erway slow? + +"I calls ter her sorter soft-like, an' dang me ef she didn't come +walkin' right up ter me, not a mite erfeered. She made a funny leetle +bow, held out her chubby hand an' says, 'How do ye do, big man. Hev ye +seen my pappa an' mamma?' + +"I tuck her on my knee, an' leetle by leetle--fer she couldn't talk +much--she told me thet they come from a great, big city whar war +'lectric and steam cyars an' policemen, fer ter play in the woods, an' +thet her pappa an' mamma hed gone out on the water in a boat ter ketch a +fish fer baby's breakfast. Thar boat hed runned erway with her pappa an' +mamma, she said, an' they war settin' in hit cryin'. + +"I reckoned what hed happed ter them, fer tharerbouts the Swift River +air a most deceevin', treetcherous stream, what looks innocent, but hes +a powerful swift current what don't show. City folks haint no business +ter go campin' in woods thet they don't know nothin' erbout," he +interpolated. + +"Wall, I left the leetle gal ersettin' on the rock, an' runned es fast +es ever I could down stream ter the rapids. Her folks warn't nowhar ter +be seen, but I found part of thar canoeboat, smashed ter splinters, an' +I guessed the rest." He paused, and smoked steadily for some time before +continuing. + +"In course the baby couldn't tell us much, 'ceptin' thet her name war +Rose. She didn't remember the name of the city whar they come from, but +she said thet erfore they come inter the woods, she slept all night on a +train. + +"We found ther campin' outfit of her paw an' maw, an' whar hit stood I +built up a leetle mound with a sorter cross on hit, in thar memory. + +"In course, I tried ter find out arterwards whar they come from, but hit +warn't no sorter use. Thar war no address on anything in the tent or +thar spare-close, and no one hed seen them in Fayville or tharerbouts, +so I reckoned thay come clar ercross the mountains from Kentuck. Mebbe, +ef I hed hed more money, I mought hev found out erbout them; but us war +powerful po'r them days. An'--mebbe, again, hit war wrong--but maw an' +me couldn't holp thinkin' thet the leetle gal war sent us by the good +Lord, fer we didn't hev no children, hevin' lost a leetle gal jest +erbout es old es Smiles, ten years back." + +"I don't think that you have any cause for reproaching yourself, Mr. +Webb," broke in Donald, reassuringly. "It seems to me that you did all +you could do, under the circumstances. Certainly the child was +fortunate, for you have been very kind to the little waif." + +"We war mostly kind ter ourselves," was Big Jerry's simple rejoinder. +"She shorely hes been a ray of sunshine in this hyar cabin--'specially +since maw died three years ergone, since when Rose hes taken keer of +hit, an' me. She air a leetle mite of a tyrant, et times, but I reckon +I'm ther better fer hit. + +"Wall, we brung her up like our own flesh an' blood, but altho' she +called my woman 'Maw', she allus called me 'Grandpappy.' An' we didn't +never try ter make her fergit her real paw an' maw, an' every +birthday--leastwise we calls ther day she come ter us her birthday--she +puts wild flowers on the mound I made. She's growed up like the other +children hyar, and 'twar them what fust called her Smiles; but 'twarnt +long erfore maw an' me sorter got inter the habit of doin' hit too, fer +hit suits her right well." + +The speaker became silent, his memory dwelling in scenes of the dimming +past, while Donald's thoughts were busy with the story which he had just +heard. The inherent difference between _her_ personality and that of the +average mountain girl was explained. The curtsy which she--a +three-year-old baby--had made Big Jerry, seemed to indicate that she +had been a flower of city hothouse culture before being transplanted to +the wilds, and there growing up, in outward semblance at least, in +conformity with her environment. But, Donald felt, within the child lay +an ineradicable strain of breeding, making her different from these +others, an inherited fineness of soul of which her peculiar charm was +evidence. + +A little later his host arose, and said with native courtesy, "I reckon +yo're tired enough ter want ter go ter bed, stranger, an' I'll show ye +ter yo'r loft room." + +The pair bade each other good-night, and Donald climbed the homemade +ladder to his resting place beneath the roof, on which the rain was +still keeping up a continuous patter. He felt that he was weary enough +so that no rocking was needed to induce slumber, but it was nevertheless +some time before he really fell asleep. And when he did it was with the +mental picture of the child's smile, like a quickly vanishing sun-rift +in the mist, before his closed eyes. + + * * * * * + +Donald was awakened the next morning by the sound of laughing voices, +and Mike's hilarious barking, outside his little window. Looking through +it he beheld a delightful picture. On the dew-sprinkled grass of the +little clearing about the cottage were merrily romping the dog, Rose and +a small child. Beyond, lay the mountain's wooded descent, rich in +variegated greens and seemingly rising like an island shore from a sea +of pearly vapor, tinted with delicate mauve, rose and amber by the sun, +which had itself not yet risen above the valley mist. Scrambling into +his outer garments, the man ran down to join them in their game. + +"Look out, er yo'll git yo're feet wetted, Mr. doctor man," cried Rose +gayly, as she drew her own bare foot through the grass and held it +forward shining with dew. + +"Do you think a little thing like wet feet would stop me from getting +into the game?" he answered. "And you called me a sturdy oak! Who is the +little buttercup?" he added, looking at the child whose shock of bright +golden curls made his nickname an apt one. + +"She's Lou, Judd's leetle sister, an' her house air jest over thar +beyond ourn. Yo' guessed rightly, she _air_ one er my flower children, +ain't ye, honey-sweet?" Rose dropped to her knees in the wet grass, and +gathered the bashful child against her tenderly. The baby buried her +face in her friend's neck without speaking, and in a moment Rose stood +up, saying, "We-all thinks a heap er Lou, 'specially Judd." + +"I've got a little niece at home just about Lou's age. Her name is +Muriel. Would you like to hear about her and her playthings? She's got a +tiny pony and cart," he said, and soon the child was sitting in his lap, +listening wide-eyed to the description of dolls who opened and shut +their eyes, and wonderful mechanical toys which walked and turned +somersaults, monkeys which climbed poles and other equally incredible +things. + +"He air a funny man, an' he tells funny stories," giggled the child, +when Donald had exhausted his memory and imagination. "In course thar +hain't no sech things." + +"Indeed thar _air_, ef he says thar air," chided Rose with implicit +faith in her friend. + +"What, doll babies thet open an' shet thar eyes, an' say 'maw' an' 'paw' +like weuns, Smiles?" asked the baby, unconvinced. + +"Wait until I go back home, and I'll send you one that can do every one +of those wonderful things," laughed Donald. "I mean to send Rose a +present, too." + +"Oh," cried the latter, "I shall be more'n obleeged ter ye." + +"What would you like best," he asked. + +She thought seriously a moment, then said, "I reckon I should like best +a white dress an' cap, like the nurses wear." + +Donald experienced a pang of regret, but responded lightly, "Very well, +that shall be yours, and I'm also going to send you a little book of +poems called 'The Child's Garden of Verses', written by another man who +looked on babies as flowers, too." + +At this moment the sound of quick footsteps caused them to look up. Judd +Amos was coming around the side of the cottage, and the night had +apparently not taken the black look from his countenance. + +"Oh, Juddy," cried the baby, wriggling free of Donald's arms. "Thet man +thar air er goin' ter send me er doll baby thet opens an' shets hits +eyes, Juddy." + +"We're obleeged ter ye; but I reckon thet I kin buy Lou all the presents +she needs," said Judd gruffly. "Yo' maw wants ye ter come ter breakfast, +sis," he added, and picked the baby up in his long arms, giving her an +undoubtedly affectionate hug as he saw that the tears had sprung to her +eyes. + +"That's nonsense," snorted Donald angrily, as Judd disappeared with his +burden. "I'll send the doll to you--along with the dress and book--and +he can't stop _you_ from giving it to her." + +"I reckon he _kaint_," Rose responded with eyes flashing. "I kin make +Judd Amos do jest whatsoever I tells him." And Donald thought that she +probably spoke the truth. + +"Haint we a-goin' ter hev no breakfast this mornin'?" came Big Jerry's +deep voice, toned to assumed anger, as he appeared with an armful of +wood, and, laughing merrily, Rose blew him a kiss and disappeared +within-doors. + +During the morning meal, which was quickly prepared, the girl talked +continually of the delights of being a children's nurse, and as he +observed the look of worry on the old man's face, Donald determined to +put an end to the child's rosy, but impossible, dream as soon as +possible. His duty was plain enough, even if he had not given his +promise to Rose's grandfather; yet the more he saw of her the stronger +grew the unbidden thought of what a wonderful woman she would make if +she could be taken to the city and given the advantages of education. + +His opportunity came when, breakfast over, Big Jerry started for the +door, announcing that he would be back in a few moments. + +"I'll wait for you to return before I go, and talk to the child as I +agreed," said Donald, in an undertone. The old man nodded his +understanding. + +Hardly knowing how to commence, Donald turned to the girl and said +hesitatingly, "Little Rose, I've got to go along in a few moments, but +first I must tell you something which I'm afraid will cause you +disappointment." + +Smiles stepped close to him, with her large eyes filled with a surprised +question. + +"It is this. I wish, indeed, that you might grow up to be a nurse for +little children, such as my story last night set you to dreaming of +being, but, although I'm sure you would be a splendid one, it is +impossible, you know, dear." + +"Why haint hit possible?" she demanded. + +"Well, you see, dear child, nurses of that sort have to study and know +almost as much as doctors. They have to train--go to school in the +hospital, that is--for three years." + +"But I haint erfeered ter work. I _wants_ ter study, an' larn," she +cried eagerly. + +"Yes, I know, but ... well, it costs a lot of money in the first place; +nurses don't get any pay while they're learning, and they have to +deposit three hundred dollars before they can take the course, one +hundred each year. Besides that, they have to have a good education to +start with. Probably you don't know what is meant by a 'High School,' +but a girl must have gone through one--studied steadily for twelve or +thirteen years--or at least have an equivalent amount of education, +before she can hope to enter the Children's Hospital." + +"Wha ... what do 'equivalent' mean?" she asked, with her lips beginning +to tremble a little from disappointment. + +"It means that you would have to know as much as though you had gone +through a High School, and be able to pass an examination proving that +you do." + +Very slowly Rose turned back to recommence her work, and Donald sensed, +rather than saw, that the tears were very near to the surface. Another +roseate dream of childhood had been ruthlessly shattered, and he hated +himself for having witlessly engendered it in her mind, since it could +only be born to die unrealized. + +When she spoke again, it was to say with a telltale quaver in her +subdued voice, "I reckon thet us mountain folks kaint never do +worthwhile things, fer all sech take er mighty lot er larnin'." + +"There are two kinds of learning in this world, Rose, one of the mind, +and the other of the heart. And without the benefits which come from the +latter, the things of the former would be of little use. You may be sure +that helping one's neighbors, as you are always helping yours; being +happy yourself and making others contented and happier, and bringing +smiles to the lips of friends by the example of your own sweet smile; +are things very much worth while," said Donald, haltingly, but with +sincerity. He placed his arm about her slender shoulder, with the +half-hope that she would accept his comfort, and perhaps cry out the +last of her disappointment with her head on his breast. Instead, she +turned sharply away and went on with the work she had started, and the +man followed her grandfather outside, realizing that hers, like most +battles within the soul, must be fought out alone. + +In a few moments, and while he was still talking to Big Jerry, Rose +joined them on the stoop. A quick glance at her flowerlike face told +Donald that her childish--but none the less real--grief was banished, +for a smile of victory curved her lips. + +"Ef ye haint a-goin' ter the city right away, doctor," said his host, +"we would be downright pleased ter hev ye come up ergin. I've come ter +like ye right well." + +"Indeed I shall--come every day if I may, for you and little Rose seem +like old friends of mine already. And, when I do go back next week, you +may be sure that I shall not forget either of you, or your hospitality." + +He picked up his rifle regretfully, whistled to Mike, who came bounding +to him, but whose tail drooped ludicrously when he understood by canine +instinct that the call meant separation from his new comrade, and with a +final good-bye wave, struck off into the woods. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +GIVING AND RECEIVING + + +The call of the Jungle Folk, "Good hunting," was not fulfilled during +Donald's day in the forest. Game there was aplenty, but he made clumsy +work of following the fresh tracks in the wet wood mould, and missed the +one wild creature that he saw, for he shot at it rather by instinct than +design, and was not sorry that his bullet went wide. Indeed, love of the +out-of-doors and the thrill of the chase, rather than the wish to slay, +drew him into the woods for his brief respites from work and for +recreation each summer. He seldom killed except for food; the convulsive +pain-drawn death struggle, the cry of mortal agony, and the despairing +look in the glazed eyes of dumb, stricken animals held no fascination +for him. He saw too much of such things among human beings. + +The day, truly, was a glory. The storm of the previous night had cleared +and revivified the air, which, for many days, had been oppressively +sultry; the irregular patches of sky, glimpsed through the branches, +were a transparent blue; the springy ground was bright with wild +blossoms and colorful berries,--dogwood and service berry,--adder's +tongue, bleeding heart and ferns in rich profusion. His subconscious +senses drank in the manifold beauties, but his active mind was otherwise +engaged. + +To-day the solitude, usually so appealing, so restful after fifty +work-filled weeks amid the noisy turmoil of the city's life, lacked +something of its customary charm and satisfaction. The man found himself +with a real longing for the companionship of the simple old man and the +intimate appeal of the child, whose acquaintance he had enjoyed for a +few hours only. It was on them, rather than on his present occupation, +that his thoughts were bent. + +At last approaching night found him safely back in the valley village, +where the keeper of the primitive boarding house expressed her +solicitation over his prolonged absence, as she handed him several +letters which had arrived the day previous. One epistle, from his +associate physician, Dr. Bentley, carried a pressing plea that he return +to Boston as soon as possible, and perform a difficult operation. The +call was so urgent that Donald regretfully concluded that duty demanded +his compliance. + +He determined, however, not to leave without paying a final visit to his +new friends, and, soon after sun-up the following morning, set forth for +Big Jerry's cabin, carrying, as a present for Rose, a woven sweetgrass +basket filled with such simple confections as the general store +afforded. Nor had he forgotten a generous supply of pipe tobacco for her +grandfather. + +Donald plunged into the woods and headed for Swift River, whose broken, +winding course he followed upward until he reached the rapids of rushing +molten silver and the low, but dangerous, fall which marked the spot of +the early tragedy in the child's life. As he stood there, cap in hand, +the sound of a low treble voice in song fell on his ears, coming from a +place not far distant. + +Some one, alone under the cathedral arches of the forest, was softly +chanting the words of the simple, familiar hymn, "Nearer, My God, to +Thee," and, impelled by the unusualness of the thing at such an hour and +in such a place, Donald moved quietly forward until the solitary singer +was in view. + +It was Rose. She was kneeling beside a low, rounded mound covered with +fresh-gathered forest vines, and sprinkled with wild flowers. + +The meaning of the picture flashed at once into the man's mind. This was +the "birthday" of little Smiles--the anniversary of her advent to a new +life--and this her yearly pilgrimage of love and filial homage to those +barely remembered two who had given her being. + +Donald waited in silence, leaning against a concealing tree trunk, until +the child had ended her act of simple devotion by throwing an unaffected +kiss from her finger tips, not towards the dead earth, but upwards to +the spirit world above. + +[Illustration: "SHE WAS KNEELING BESIDE A LOW, ROUNDED MOUND"] + +Then, as she arose and moved slowly away, her light step barely +disturbing the grass, Donald followed and overtook her. The girl's +greeting, although more subdued than on the morning before, was none the +less delighted, and, with her hand snuggled warmly in his, they made +their way to the cabin. + +"I bids ye welcome, doctor," sang out Big Jerry, as he caught sight of +them. "Hit shor' air a fine day fer ter spend in ther woods." + +"And I cannot spend it there," answered Donald, ruefully. "I've been +called back to the city to attend a little sick patient, and leave +Fayville on the noon train." + +"Wall, now, thet air too bad, an' hit's mighty kind er ye ter come way +up hyar erfore yo' left," said the old man, while the girl's new +disappointment, caused by the announcement, was evident enough without +verbal expression. + +"I brought you a package of tobacco, a little token of my appreciation +for your kindness to me night before last, Mr. Webb; and Rose a +'birthday' gift, just a few sweets in a basket which I found at the +store, and which struck me as pretty." + +Jerry stumblingly expressed his gratitude for the present, and Rose +unconsciously curtsied, much as she must have thirteen years before. Her +lips and eyes smiled her shy thanks, but it appeared to Donald that +mischievous amusement struggled with appreciation in her look. + +"Something seems to be amusing you, little lady. Let me into the +secret," said Donald. + +Her silvery laughter broke from her lips, as she answered, "I'm shor' +obleeged fer the compliment yo' paid thet basket. I made hit myself." + +"_You_ did? Why, it's wonderful, but it looks as though I'd been +carrying coals to Newcastle. Newcastle is the name of a town in England +where a great deal of coal comes from," he hastened to add, in +explanation. + +"Like kerryin' water ter the river. I makes them leetle baskets odd +times, an' sells 'em ter the storekeeper in Fayville, but I never hev +none fer myself, somehow, an' I haint never a-goin' ter part with this +hyar one, leastwise ef I kin keep hit." + +"Of course you may. It's my present to you just the same; but don't be +afraid that it is meant to take the place of the other things I have +promised you." + +While he had been talking to the child, Big Jerry had picked up Donald's +rifle, and now stood caressingly running his hand down the blue-black +barrel, and over the polished black walnut stock. + +Its owner watched him with inward amusement, yet fully understanding the +woodman's love for a perfect weapon. As an ordinary man would lift a +child's airgun, the giant tossed the rifle to a firing position, +snuggled the butt against his shoulder, and leaned his gray-bearded +cheek on it affectionately. Finally he lowered it regretfully to the +ground, and remarked, with the suggestion of a sigh, "This hyar shor' +air a mighty purty weepon, doctor. I reckon she'll drap a bullet purty +nigh whar hit's aimed ter go." + +"Try it," encouraged Don, catching a look of almost boyish delight cross +the old man's face. + +"Air she loaded? I haint right familiar with these hyar repeatin' guns, +with thar leevers an' sich." + +The other threw a cartridge into the breech, and handed the weapon over, +with the remark, "She shoots a trifle high, compared with the average +rifle, I've found--perhaps an inch at a hundred yard range." + +"Thank ye, sir," replied Jerry, and added simply, "I reckon I'll jest +chip the top off'n thet big rock erfore the oak tree, yonder." With the +last word came the gun's flash, and to Donald's amazement he saw a tiny +cloud of white dust rise from the peak of the boulder. + +Rose was already running lightly towards the target accompanied by the +excited Mike, and her twinkling legs held such fleetness that the +trained athlete barely caught up with her as she finished the dash, and +triumphantly laid her finger on a leaden mark across the stone. + +"Good Lord," gasped Donald, as Big Jerry approached more sedately, "I +thought that I could shoot some, but that ... that beats anything I ever +saw in the West, or on the stage. And with an unfamiliar gun, too." + +"She shoots erbout ther same ter the left, too," commented the marksman +judiciously. "But et thet she air a moghty fine rifle-gun, an' I shor' +would be pleased ter own her, only I reckon yo' haint anxious ter sell." + +"I'd as soon think of selling Mike, or any other of my good friends," +promptly responded Donald, whereat a quick shadow of disappointment +crossed the old man's countenance. + +"I erpreciates the feelin' thet ye hev fer hit," he said as he handed it +back. "Er gun air mighty nigh like blood kin ter a hunter." + +"But we sometimes part even with certain of our kindred when the right +man comes along whom we can trust to love, honor and cherish them," +laughed the younger man. "And, since I feel that I would be insulting +that gun to fire it again after the way _you_ fired it, I'm going to +honor it by giving it to you." + +"Why ... why, in course I'm mightily obleeged ter ye, doctor; but I jest +couldn't think of acceptin' hit from ye," stammered Big Jerry, +struggling between the dictates of honor and insatiate desire. + +"Don't say another word, my good friend; she's yours and I have several +others at home. Only please don't use it in any shooting feuds--if there +are such things still in existence nowadays. Since my profession is to +save human lives, I mustn't have a part in the taking of them even by +proxy, you know." Don's eyes were laughing. + +"Yo' hev no cause fer worriment erlong thet line," earnestly answered +Jerry, as he patted the rifle, cradled in the crook of his arm like a +child. "My fightin' day air over, praise ter Gawd. Thar war a time when +I war sorter proud of ther notch thet's cut in the stock er my fust gun; +but now ... wall, I'd give a good deal ef 'twarn't thar. I figgers, +nowerdays, thet hit haint the Lord's purpose thet humans should spill +each other's blood, leastwise onless thar's somethin' bigger et stake +then spite er revengement." + +"Tell him erbout the shootin' matches at the County Fairs whar yo' used +allus ter bear erway the prize, grandpap," interposed Smiles hurriedly, +with the obvious design of changing the current of the old man's +thoughts. + +The latter seated himself on the rock, his face lighting with +reminiscence, as he complied, with the words, "Wall, ef I does say hit, +thar warn't many in Kentuck er West Virginny could handle a shootin' +iron with Big Jerry in them days, an', come County Fair time, I mostwise +allus kerried off the money prize an' the wreath give by ther queen. +'Twarn't fancy shootin', like they hes on the stage yo' war er-speakin +of, p'raps, but hit took a stiddy hand an' a clar eye ter do the trick. +Gener'lly the spo't ended with the pick er the rifle shooters a-trying +ter cut down ten weighted strings et a hundred paces, an' more times +then once I done hit in as many shots." + +Then, as though somewhat ashamed at the boastfulness in his words, he +added hastily, "But I take no credit fer thet Gawd give me the skill +ter do hit, an' I might hev used hit ter better purpose then ofttimes I +did, fer I was overproud er my skill. + +"I shor' thanks ye fer this hyar rifle-gun, an', come Thanksgiving time, +I hopes ter send ye a wild turkey bird killed by hit." + +"If you do that I shall be more than repaid," responded Donald. "Well, +good friends of mine, I must be on my way; but don't think that you have +seen the last of me. I've found the ideal spot in which to spend a +vacation, and next summer I'll be back here again, D. V." + +"What's 'D. V.'?" asked the girl, curiously. + +"It stands for _Deo Volente_--Latin words which mean, 'God willing.'" + +"I hopes thet yo' _does_ come back, an' we-all will be here ter welcome +ye, D. V." said Rose; then added, shyly, "I hev a gift fer yo' ter take +back home ter leetle Muriel, ef yo're willin'. Hit's in the cabin, an', +ef yo'll wait, I'll run an' git hit fer ye." + +"Of course I'll be glad to take it to her, my child, and I know that +she'll be delighted both with it and the stories I shall tell her about +Smiles. But wait, I will go with you, for there is one thing more I want +to do before I leave, if you can find me a piece of string." + +With a question in her wide-eyed glance, Rose led him back to the little +mountain homestead and, as soon as they were inside, hurried to produce +the desired article. + +"Now then, hold up your arms," commanded Donald lightly. + +Rose obeyed, and, slipping the string about her yielding waist, he drew +it taut and tied a knot to mark the resultant measurement. Following the +same procedure, he took the circumference of her chest, the length of +her arm, and from her neck to a few inches above her slender ankle. +Suddenly her puzzled expression gave place to one of understanding, and +the starry smile broke over her countenance. + +"You've _guessed_," cried Donald with feigned disappointment. + +"Ef hit's a secret, I won't even whisper hit ter no one," the child +responded gayly. + +"Good. It _is_ a secret, but not a dark one." + +"I reckon thet hit's all white," she gurgled. "An' now I hev a secret +fer _yo_' ter keep--leastwise till ye gits ter the city. Yo' promise, +too?" + +"I solemnly swear," said Don, and, breaking away, the girl ran into her +own room and bashfully brought out a paper bundle through the top folds +of which protruded the twisted reed handle of a basket, somewhat similar +to the one of her own manufacture which he had given her. "This hyar +basket's fer the little girl; but, inside hit's something fer yo' ter +remember leetle Rose by. Also thar's a writin', askin' ye ter do +something fer me an' ef yo' kin do hit I will shor' be mightily obleeged +ter ye." + +"I can't guess what on earth it is, but you may be sure that I will do +it if it can be done," he answered earnestly. "Good-by, Smiles. Even +without your gift as a reminder I shouldn't have forgotten you, and I +shall not think of the Cumberlands without seeing your dear little +face." + +Donald took both her small hands in his big ones, and, yielding to a +sudden impulse, bent down and drew her towards him. For just an instant +she held back slightly, and the color swiftly mantled her cheeks. Then, +as he was on the point of releasing her, a little ashamed of his +intention, she freed her hands and, flinging them about his neck, kissed +him warmly again. + +With the fresh, childlike pressure of her young lips on his, Donald went +hurriedly out, and, after a last hearty handclasp from Big Jerry, turned +towards the woods, an unaccustomed song in his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN UNACCEPTED CHALLENGE + + +"I wants ter hev speech with ye, stranger." + +The words, spoken in a harsh voice, fell gratingly on Donald's ears, and +brought to an abrupt end the happy thoughts with which his mind was +occupied. He stopped, forcing the growling Mike behind him, as Judd +stepped out from the bushes, squarely across his path. + +"I would be glad to stop and talk with you, Judd, but I'm due in +Fayville before noon, and have already stayed too long at Big Jerry's." + +"Yo' hev," was the prompt and surly reply. + +"What the devil do you mean by that?" snapped Donald, with rising ire. + +"What I says, goes," was the reply. "This hyar place air a powerful good +one fer yo' ter keep erway from, stranger." + +"Indeed? Well, you don't own it." + +The younger man's color heightened, and his lean jaws clamped together. + +"I warns ye fair," he said, after a brief pause. + +"And I don't accept such a warning from any one," shot back Donald, +momentarily growing more angry. "It's no business of yours, whether I go +or stay." + +"I makes hit my business," replied the other sullenly. "Big Jerry air +growin' old an' foolish, I reckon; but I seen what I seen, an' thar +haint no city man ergoin' ter come up hyar an' make trouble fer a gal uv +our'n." + +"Judd, it's you who are the fool. I don't admit your right to discuss +this, or any matter, with me, but Rose is nothing to me but a very good +friend. Besides, she's only a child." + +"She's nigh onter old ernough ter wed," was the uncompromising answer. +"An' ef she haint nothin' ter ye, the more shame on ye fer tryin' ter +make her love ye, an' mayhaps break her heart." + +"But I haven't tried to make her love me," broke in Donald impatiently. + +"Then fer what did yo' put yer arms erbout her an' kiss her, like I seen +ye through the winder awhile back, I wants ter know?" demanded the +other, as he hastily frustrated Donald's attempt to step by him. + +The man felt his own face flush hotly, and was angry over this visible +display of feeling. + +"I tell you she's only a child. I kissed her as I would any little girl +of whom I was fond." + +"Yo' love her, an' yo' haint the man ter say hit." + +"Very well, then. Supposing I admit that I love her, what is it to you?" +replied Donald, with a flash of heat. + +"I loves her, too. I've loved her since she come ter these hyar +mountains, a leetle baby; an' I don't calkerlate ter hev yo', er any +city man, make a plaything uv her. Hit's man ter man, now. Air yo', er +haint yo', a-goin' ter leave hyar, an' keep erway?" + +"As I told you before, it's none of your business," replied Don shortly. + +"An' es I told ye before, hit air. Now I tells ye thet yo' haint +a-comin' back." + +"That ... remains to be seen," Donald answered wrathfully as he stepped +past Judd, this time unimpeded. + +He had not gone more than a score of swinging strides, keeping the +bristling dog close beside him, when he heard the staccato crack of a +rifle, and simultaneously the high-pitched whine of a bullet past his +head. + +Once before, in the Maine woods, he had been an unwilling target, on +that occasion for an overanxious deer hunter. Then he had sprung up, +waving his arms and shouting a warning, but now instinct told him that +the opposite procedure was the proper one, and he threw himself +precipitately into the enveloping rhododendrons. As he did so, from the +path above him came a derisive laugh which set his blood boiling. + +It awakened in Donald all the blind, fighting spirit which, in gridiron +days, had driven him with clinched teeth into the thick of the battering +melee. He sprang into a crouching posture, face turned toward the +taunting sound, every muscle taut, every nerve tingling, and with but +one thought surging through his brain--the desire to charge back and +attack Judd, barehanded. + +Slowly the red demons of primitive passion vanished before the returning +light of wisdom, born of maturity and the restraining power of +civilization. He quickly realized that he had no right to make a fool of +himself for the sake of such a cause, and in such a childish manner. His +duty was paramount to the satisfaction of an atavistic impulse, and, +placing a strong mental grasp upon his nerves, which cried for drastic +action, Donald turned downward into the footpath again, and broke into a +run. + +Haste was doubly essential, for little time remained before the hour for +the departure of his train, and, even in Virginia, it _might_ leave +according to schedule. As he crashed impetuously through a bush whose +branches blocked the path, he heard again the laughter from above him +and caught a new note therein--that of exultation. + +Donald stifled an oath, while an additional reason for returning to the +mountain burned its way into his heart. + + * * * * * + +On the path above, Judd deliberately blew the fouling smoke from his +rifle barrel, turned about, and, with a satisfied smile mingling with +the expression of hate on his lips, climbed back towards Jerry's cabin. + +In its doorway stood Rose. The happy flush still lingered delicately on +her cheeks, and her limpid eyes were full of a soft, dreamy light. + +"What war yo' ershootin' at, Judd?" she cried, as the man came into +view, carelessly swinging his long weapon. + +"Et a pole-cat," was his brief reply, as he removed his broad straw hat +and sank with the unconscious grace of a wild animal onto the stoop at +her feet. + +Neither broke the silence for several minutes, but the man scarcely took +his burning gaze from the child's lovely face. At length she sighed ever +so gently, and, seating herself beside him, dropped her firm chin into +her cupped hands. + +"Smiles," began Judd, with all the harshness gone from his voice, "I +don't enjoy fer ter hear yo' sigh thet erway, er ter see ther fur-off +look in yo'r purty eyes, 'cause I fears thet hit means thar's some one +else then me in yo'r heart." + +Instantly she sat up straight, and turned her eyes, full of surprise, +upon him. "Why, Juddy!" she said. + +"Ef hit's thet doctor man, I likes hit least uv all, Smiles," the man +continued, speaking bitterly. "He haint come fur no good, leetle gal, +an' I don't want fer yo' ter think on him." + +"I reckon I thinks on whom I likes," she responded briefly. + +"Don't go fer ter git angry with me, Rose gal. Hit aint thet I wants ter +be selfish er onreasonable, but ..." Judd stopped. Words of passionate +love trembled on his lips, but were held there by a barrier of +inherited reticence in matters of the heart. Iron reserve and laconic +speech were essentially typical of his breed; but, at length, the eager +utterances strained against the fetter of his will, and broke them. + +"I kaint speak as I desires to, Smiles. I fears I kaint make ye +understand what's in my heart; but I've keered mightily fer ye, dear, +ever since yo' war a smilin' leetle baby gal, an' now ... now yo'r most +a woman grown, an' I love ye, want ye more come each new day an' each +new night. Thar haint one ef them passes but thet I make excuse fer ter +see ye, an' jest ther sight o' yo'r sweet face somehow kindles a light +inside me that burns, 'thout scarcely dimmin', till I sees ye agin. +Thet's ther reason I said what I done, a moment back. + +"I jest kaint bear fer ter think uv yo' lovin' some one else then me. I +... I keers so much thet I believes I'd rather see ye dead then thet, +Rose gal." + +Fairly trembling with the sweep of his unloosed emotion, the reserved, +strong-willed man paused, and, as the girl stood up hastily, she was +trembling, too. + +"Why, Juddy," she cried softly, distress in her voice, "I didn't rightly +understand thet yo' felt thet erway. I likes ye, in course, but I'm only +a leetle gal, an' I haint keerin' fer any one ... thet erway. I ... I +don't enjoy fer ter hyar yo' say sech words ter me now, Juddy." + +"I reckon yo'r right, an' I shouldn't hev told ye yet, Rose," answered +the man, almost humbly. "I kin bide my time, but I wants ye ter know +thet I feels es I does. I'm a-goin' ter keep right on lovin' ye more an' +more, and, when yo'r older, I plans ter ask ye ter marry with me." + +"I likes ye ... indeed I likes ye, Judd, but ... oh, please don't ever +go fer ter do that. I kaint never marry ye, Judd." + +The man stiffened, and his face grew black again. "I believes thet yo' +air in love with thet doctor man, atter all," he shot out. + +"I haint neither," cried the girl, angrily stamping her bare foot, "I +does love him, but I haint _in_ love with nobody, 'ceptin' grandpap." + +"Yo' submitted ter his takin' ye in his arms an' kissin' ye," burst out +the mountaineer. + +"Judd Amos, yo'r a mean, spyin' sneak, an' I hates ye!" stormed Rose, +while her eyes filled with angry tears. + +"I didn't go fer ter spy on ye, Smiles," he protested, "I seen ye by +chance. But, whether yo' love him er not, yo' might jest as well fergit +him. He keered fer ye jest because yo' air er purty mountain flower, an' +he haint never ercomin' back hyar ergin." + +"He air, too," contradicted the girl rebelliously. "He air ercomin' back +an' he's promised ter help me git edercation." + +Judd laughed shortly. + +"I warned him fair ter keep erway, an' p'inted my warnin' with a rifle +ball." + +Rose's eyes widened in horror. + +"Yo' ... yo' means yo' shot him, Judd?" she whispered, with both hands +pressed to her breast. + +"Shot him? No. I didn't aim fer ter hurt him, an' 'twarn't in nowise +necessary. I jest put a bullet past his head an' he run like a skeered +rabbit." + +"Taint so. He never run from no one," she cried staunchly. + +"Wall, hit shor' appeared like hit ter me," was the gloating answer. + +Feminine instinct gave Rose an intuitive insight into the real reasons +which underlay Donald's apparent flight; but pride sealed her lips, just +as she was on the point of explaining triumphantly that the doctor had +been called back home that day, and that it was the following summer +when he would return. + +"Juddy," she said gently, after a moment, "yo' hed no reason fer doin' +what yo' done. Hit war mighty wrong, but I fergives ye. I wants ter +still be friends with ye. I wants ye ter help me, Juddy." + +The last words were breathed softly, and the naive appeal in her voice +brought the hostile man quickly back to submissive and worshipful +fealty. + +"Yo' know thet I'd do enything in the world fer ye, Smiles," he answered +simply. + +"I believes thet yo' _think_ yo' would, Judd, but I wonders ef, deep in +yo'r heart, yo' really keers ernough fer me ter ... I kaint scarcely +explain what I means. I reckon I air powerful ignerrant in +speecherfyin'." + +"I don't rightly know what yo' means, Smiles, but I give ye my promise +ter do whatsoever yo' wants, ef hit takes my life," he declared +earnestly, his former selfish desire to bend her will into compliance +with his own for the moment yielding to his blind eagerness to prove his +love. + +Youthful and unsophisticated in worldly wiles as she was, the eternal +feminine in Rose sensed her victory and power, and, still maintaining +her half commanding, half tenderly appealing tone, she outlined her +plan, for the accomplishment of which his aid was all essential. + +Judd protested, pleaded and stormed--all to no avail. He felt himself +like a man caught in a snare of his own weaving--a snare strengthened by +fair, yet unbreakable, silken threads added by the child. + +Finally, miserable at heart, he yielded, and departed with his hand +tingling from the impulsive affectionate pressure of Smiles' fingers +upon it. But, as the conscious thrill which it caused in his being +lessened, his thoughts became immersed in gloom, through which no +encouraging light made its way. He realized that he had lost the first +battle for her heart, and the loss brought closer the dark spectre of +ultimate defeat. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"SMILES'" GIFT: AND THE "WRITING" + + +"Now, my boy, let us hear an account of your trip. Did you enjoy it, and +find anything of especial interest in the mountains of the feud +country?" + +The doctor's father lighted his after-dinner cigar, and leaned back with +the indolent satisfaction which a man ripe in useful years may feel when +surrounded by his family. Since the death of his wife, he and his +children had been more inseparably attached one to another than ever, +and each drew a full measure of happiness from these all-too-infrequent +reunions, when Donald could be with them. Even little Muriel was not +left out of the group, for she had been granted the exceptional +privilege of sitting up an extra hour, and listening to the wonderful +hunting tales told by her beloved Uncle Don, upon whose lap she was now +contentedly curled. Her mother and father sat near by. + +"Yes, to both questions," responded Donald. + +"Did you shoot any bears?" queried his little niece, expectantly. + +"No bears this trip, although I almost scalded to death a bare-legged +little girl," was the reply. And with Rose thus made the central figure +of his recital at the very outset, Donald proceeded to tell of his +experiences and new friendships; but consciously refrained from +mentioning the unpleasant incident with which his trip ended, and +Smiles' parting embrace. + +His faithful reproduction of the soft mountain dialect brought frequent +smiles from his listeners, and filled the child with delighted +amusement. + +"I just love Smiles," she cried, as he finished his story. + +"Indeed, so does every one who knows her. _You_ do, don't you, Mike?" +added Donald, and the dog beat a tattoo on the rug with his stumpy tail. + +"Witchery," laughed his father. "Even your clumsy description has +strangely stirred my youthful blood, and 'I longs fer ter see this hyar +wonderful child dryad of ther primeval forest.' If you ever go back +there, you had better wear magic armor as protection against that +illusive smile which seems to have cast a spell of enchantment over your +civilized senses." + +"Pshaw, you needn't be concerned about my feelings for her. She's no +siren, but a very real little person. I'll admit that she's amazingly +attractive; but she's merely a child." + +"Children grow up," teased his sister. + +"I'm aware of that natural phenomenon," answered Donald, somewhat +curtly. "But ... Great Scott, can't I describe a fifteen--no, +sixteen-year-old little savage, without all you people imagining that +I'm going to be such a fool as to fall in love with her?" + +"Sometimes it isn't what one says, but the way he says it, that +incriminates," put in his brother-in-law, adding his voice to the +general baiting which had apparently disclosed a tender spot. + +"Hang it all, I believe that I'll go back and ask Smiles to marry me, if +only to put an end to your teasing," cried Don with a laugh not entirely +natural. "At least I might perhaps succeed in frustrating _your_ obvious +designs, Ethel. Oh, I'm not blind!" + +"I've almost concluded that you _are_--or hopeless," answered his +sister. "However, I'm perfectly willing to admit that I would like to +see you married to Marion Treville--she's my closest friend, and would +certainly make you a perfect wife." + +"Too perfect, by far. Can you imagine me hitched with that proud and +classic beauty? I should go mad." + +"But I want my pretty basket that little Smiles made for me," broke in +Muriel, to whom the present remarks held no interest, and who emphasized +her demand by seizing his cheeks. + +"To be sure you do, and I want to see my present, too. I'll bring them +right down." + +Not at all ill pleased at this opportunity to escape from his family's +jesting, which, for some indefinable reason, aroused his belligerency, +Donald jumped up hastily and departed for the sanctuary of his bedroom, +to get the bulky bundle with its mysterious enclosure. Minutes slipped +by, and he failed to return to the group downstairs. + +At last his absorption was broken into by the arrival of Muriel, whose +entrance into the room, with the traces of tears on her cheeks, brought +him back to the present with a remorseful start. + +"You didn't come down, an' you _didn't_ come down, Uncle Don, an' now +mother says it's bedtime, an' I want Smiles' basket to take with me." + +"Why, I'm terribly sorry that I've been so long, sweetheart-mine. I +stopped to read the letter she wrote to me, and, I'm ashamed to say, +forgot that you were waiting for me. But see, here's your present. +Little Rose made it all herself for you. Isn't it pretty?" + +With a cry of delight the child gathered the simple basket into her +chubby arms and bent her head over it. "Oh, don't it smell sweet, Uncle +Don. Does Smiles smell like that?" + +"Perhaps not exactly," he replied, chuckling. + +"Now please show me what she sent to you. Was it a basket, too?" + +"No, not a basket. It's a very great secret; but, if you'll promise not +to tell a soul, no matter how they tease, I'll show it to you." + +"Cross my heart, an' hope to die," said the child earnestly, making +across her pinafore the mystic sign, so potent to the childish mind. + +Donald opened a drawer in the chiffonier and took out a small and +obviously cheap glazed blue-and-white vase. The child took it +wonderingly and, removing the cover, sniffed audibly and deeply. + +"My. _This_ smells like Rose," she said with conviction. + +"You're right, it does, indeed, because it _is_ roses--dried wild rose +petals which she gathered and preserved herself. I saw it in her little +cabin, and know that it was her most precious possession, yet she gave +it to 'Uncle Don' as a keepsake, so that he might remember her whenever +he smells of it." + +"Wasn't she just _too_ sweet to do that. My, how I would like to see +her, Uncle Don." + +"Well, perhaps you may, some day." + +The sentence echoed out of the past, carrying his recollection back to +the night when he had heedlessly spoken the identical words to Smiles, +and there entered his mind the sudden realization of what amazing +potentialities for good or evil often lie hidden in the simplest +utterances. + +The sound of his sister's light tread in the hallway caused Donald to +return his homely gift to its hiding place hurriedly, and little Muriel, +with roguishly twinkling eyes, imitated his action as he laid his finger +on his lips as a seal of secrecy. + +"Well, you _two_ kids," laughed Ethel, as she caught sight of the +picture framed by the doorway. + +"I'm glad that I haven't wholly forgotten how to be one," answered her +brother, as he kissed first his little niece, and then the basket which +she held up with the demand that it be paid similar homage, and bade +them good-night. + +Rejoining the diminished group in the living-room, Donald was +preoccupiedly silent, until his father asked, + +"Well, have you read your little friend's 'writing'? I confess to a mild +curiosity as to what sort of a letter a girl like her would write, and +what sort of a request she would be likely to make of you." + +Don drew from his pocket the letter, painfully scrawled on cheap, and +not overclean paper, and handed it over. Adjusting his eye-glasses the +older man read aloud:-- + + Dear Dr. Mac, + + Truly I want to be a nurse like you told me about some day. + +"Well," commented the reader, "at least she starts right off with the +business in hand, without any palavering. + + And I reckon that even a little mountain girl like me can be one + if she wishes hard enough and works hard, too. + +"Why," he interpolated again, "there doesn't seem to be any evidence of +your weirdly wonderful spelling and grammar here." + +"Go on," answered Donald, smiling slightly. + + I reckon it will take me a long, long time to get education and + earn all that money, but I can do it, Dr. Mac. I am sure I can do + it. I told my grandfather all that I mean to do, and he won't try + to stop me none. Of course he does not want for me to go away from + him, but I explained that I _had_ to, and of course that made it + all right. + + When you was telling us what those nurses done, something seemed + like it went jump inside my heart, and straightways I know that the + dear Lord meant for me to do it, too. I read a story once about a + girl in france named Jone of Ark and I reckon I felt like she done + when she see the angel. + + I know I can do it, Dr. Mac, if you will help me a little bit like + you promised. Most of all I figures I need a heap of book learning, + and it is books I wants for you to get me. You know the books I + need to have, Dr. Mac, and in this letter I am going to put $10. + + It is an awful lot of money; but I reckon books cost a good deal, + and you can bring me the change next summer, for I have not got no + use for money here. Don't be afeared. It is my own money. It was in + my father's pocket among the camp things granddaddy found, and + there was some more. Grandfather, he kept it for me until I was a + big girl and now I am keeping it for a rainy day, like the copy + book says, although I don't think money would be much use to keep + off the rain. + + Their is a preacher man who lives on our mountain winters, when he + can not travel about none, and I know I can get him to help me + learn if I help his wife with her work, and I can read pretty well + now and write pretty well when I have a spelling book to study the + words out of, although I have to go sorter slow, for they do not + allus spell words like they sound, and sometimes I cannot find them + at all. I guess my book is not a very good one. + + I reckon it will take me a long while to earn more than $300; but I + am going to work awful hard, making baskets and other things, and I + am going to get Judd Amos, our naybor, to sell them for me at the + village store, for he goes down their trading every week, and he + will do anything I ask him, like I told you. + + This is a pretty long letter and it has taken me all the evening to + right. I hope that you can read it. Well, I guess that is all now + from your loveing little friend. + + I most forgot to say please give my love to Mike. + + ROSE WEBB. + +"Well, I've got to admit that I have seen many a letter, written by a +grown-up, that fell a long ways short of that one in clarity of thought +and in accomplishment of a definite object," said Mr. MacDonald, as he +handed it back. "Do you suppose that her eagerness to become a nurse is +just a passing childish whim, or has she really got sand enough to put +her almost impossible plan through?" + +"Clairvoyancy was not included either in the Harvard or Medical School +curriculum," responded Donald, with a shrug. + +"Meaning that the things of the future are in the laps of the gods. Of +course, but I was merely asking for your personal opinion. I'm not +jesting now; that letter really aroused my interest in the child." + +"Well, then, I believe that Smiles really possesses the strength of +purpose to go through with even so difficult a task as she has set for +herself. Remember, she comes of city stock, and hasn't the blood of +those unprogressive mountaineers in her veins." + +"And you? Are you going to help her as she asks? What about your promise +to Big Jerry?" + +"I lived up to both the spirit and letter of that, when I tried to +explain to the child the almost unsurmountable difficulties which lay +between her and the accomplishment of her dream. Besides, I know that +she has told the truth in her letter, and has somehow managed actually +to win over the old man. I can't help feeling mighty sorry for him, if +the foster birdling is really going to fly away from his nest after he +has reared and loved her so tenderly, but, after all, it is only the +history of the human race. Still, I can't blame him if he looks on me as +a serpent who stole into his simple Eden, carrying the apple of +discontent." + +"There have been, of course, plenty of cases similar to this, where the +adventurer's spirit was really big enough and the vision strong enough +to carry him or her through to victory," mused Donald's father. "Such a +one was the immortal Abe Lincoln, who came from just such surroundings. +But the task is doubly hard for a young girl, and the experiment of thus +breaking away from the ties and traditions of many years, and seeking a +place in a wholly new, wholly dissimilar life, cannot but be fraught +with dangers. There, in that simple environment she naturally appealed +to you as not only an attractive child, but as a somewhat unusual +personality. Tell me, lad, how will, or would, she measure up, if +transplanted a few years hence into city life, where the standards of +comparison are so utterly different; so much more exacting?" + +"Frankly, I don't know," responded Donald. "Since I read her letter I +have been asking myself that question, and the answer worries me, since +I feel in a way responsible for having opened the gates before her +untrained feet. Somehow I cannot disassociate little Rose from her +present environment, and, although she certainly _has_ an unusual charm +for such a child, I must admit that, in part, at least, it was the +result of--no, not that, but made more obvious by--her surroundings." + +"Well, she has apparently decided to take the moulding of her life into +her own hands and, without knowing the quotation, determined to be 'the +master of her fate and captain of her soul.' However, a little more +education can scarcely hurt her, and, if she succeeds in saving up some +money, it will come in handy enough as a 'dot,' in case she marries your +friend, Judd Amos, and raises a family of mountain brats." + +Donald's reply was unnecessarily positive. + +"I'll wager that she'll never do that." And with that the conversation, +as far as it concerned Smiles, ended. + + * * * * * + +During purloined hours in the next few days the eminently successful +young physician might have been seen engaged in strange errands, which +took him into such places as a dressmaker's establishment, and several +stores which sold textbooks. It was also a noteworthy fact that the +decidedly soiled and crumpled ten-dollar bill, with which he had been +commissioned to purchase the means through which education might be +acquired, was never taken from the special compartment in his bill +folder. + +Then the flood of fall practice engulfed him, and gradually the memory +of little Smiles faded from his busy mind, although it never quite +vanished, and from time to time fresh breezes from the distant +Cumberlands fanned it to life like a glowing ember. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOME OF SEVERAL EPISTLES + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + I + + Commonwealth Avenue + Boston, Massachusetts. + September 15, 1912. + +Dear little Smiles: + +If you had been able to look inside of my heart when I opened your +present and read your letter, you would have beheld as many different +lights and shadows there as you can see in your own eyes when you look +in the glass over your bureau. + +The sight of that little jar, and the scent of the spiced rose-petals, +brought you so near to me that I thought I could almost see you by just +closing my eyes--which may seem to you a funny way of "seeing" a person. +It made me very happy. + +The letter, too, pleased me a great deal; but I must tell you that it +also troubled me. That is when the shadow fell on my thoughts of you. + +The reason? I will tell it to you, because I feel that I should, +although please do not think that I want to croak like an old black crow +in one of your pine trees. + +If you have really set your whole heart upon becoming a nurse when you +grow up, and your granddaddy has consented, it is not for me to say that +you cannot do it. But I _do_ know the path which you must travel. I +know that it is much steeper, much more rocky and full of briary bushes +than any one your feet have ever climbed on your mountain, and you will +have to keep a very brave little heart inside you, if you hope to reach +the summit. And then, if you succeed, instead of finding a fairy castle +filled with all sorts of pleasant things, you will only discover another +long and weary road which must be traveled until your tired little body, +and heart, made heavy by the sufferings of little children, long for the +quiet restfulness of your dear old mountain home. + +Am I still trying to discourage you? I suppose that I am, for, you see, +_I_ can look back along that road which lies _before_ you, and I can +remember the rocks I had to climb over, and the bushes I had to struggle +through, and yet I know that it was far easier for me than it will be +for you. + +You have read parables in the Bible. Well, I am preaching a modern +parable. "Book learning" is a sword and buckler--or perhaps it would be +better to say that it is a suit of strong hunting clothes and thick +leather knee-boots, and I was pretty well clad like that when I started +my trip, while you are dressed only in thin gingham, with your legs and +feet bare--as I first saw you. Please shut your eyes, dear child, and +try to see the parable picture I have drawn for you. + +Have you done it? The picture is not as pretty as the one I painted the +night I told about how fine it was to be a nurse, is it? But it is more +nearly true to life. + +Now, think hard before you make up your mind as to whether or not you +really mean to go ahead, for--after all, little Smiles--each boy and +girl has soon to decide, all alone, what he or she is going to do with +that strange thing which we call life. + +If your courage is really as strong as that of the wonderful Joan of +Arc, I, too, believe that you can succeed and make your dream come +true, and of course I will help you, gladly--in every way that I can. + +Now I am all through preaching. It is out of my line, and I promise not +to do it again. Within a few days you will, I hope, get a boxful of the +books which I have sent you as you asked me. Most of them are just what +you wanted--school books--but on my own hook I added one or two not +strictly for study--like plums in a dry bread pudding. And, of course, +there is something else in the box and _I_ guess that _you_ can guess +what it is. + +This, little Smiles, is the longest letter I ever wrote to anybody, I +think. Don't you feel proud? It must end now, however; but not before I +ask you to give my best regards to your kind granddaddy. + +Don't let the cold winter that is coming, chill your warm affection for + + Your sincere friend, + Donald MacDonald. + +P.S. I told Mike what you wrote to him, and he wigwagged a message of +love back to you with his tail. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + II + + Big Jerry's Cabin + in Webb's Gap, Virginia. + Sep't. 20, 1912. + +Dear Doctor Mac: + +Oh, dear doctor, can you ever forgive me for waiting two whole days +before I wrote you back to thank you with all my heart for the many +wonderful things which came in that box? It was like a fairy's treasure +chest. And most of all I am obliged for that letter you wrote me. It was +the first letter I ever got from any one and I shall keep it as long as +I live. I think, of all the things I got, I like that the best. Those +others you could _buy_, but you had to _make_ that yourself, +and it seemed like I could almost hear you talking the words in your +strong voice, like the sound of the falls in the Swift River. + +When I looked inside that box I could not make up my mind what I liked +best. The many books kind of scared me when I opened them and remembered +I had got to know all that much; but the book of beautiful poetry I just +love. I have read all of the poetrys and know some of them to speak +already. + +Then there is that nurse's dress. O how I love it, and how I wish for +you to see me in it. I plans to put it on a little while everyday and +pretend that I am a real nurse _like I am going to be_. I done it +yesterday, and somehow when I shet my eyes and run my hands over its +crackely stiff whiteness, it seemed to me that the room was full of +sweet little babies for me to take keer of. + +And now, doctor, I must tell you that I done what you said for me to do. +I closed my eyes up tight like granddaddy does when I say prayers, and I +saw little Smiles acliming that rough path, and walking along that rough +road you wrote about, but by the side of that long road I kept aseeing +beautiful little flowers what were fading and drooping and calling out +in tiny voices like baby chickens for Rose to keer for them. So doctor, +the picture did not scare me none. + +The Lord give Joan of Arc (I know how to spell it now) a silver armor to +protect her, and I reckon the white nurse's dress that you give me is my +armor. + +Now doctor I must tell you about little Lou and the wonderful doll you +sent to her. She was so funny when I give it to her that I got a chreek +in my side laughing. First thing, she held it up tight against her and +when it went Ma-a-a-like a calf, she dropped it quick and run and hide +under the bed. But pretty soon she crep out again and I showed her how +to make it shut its eyes. + +Then she jumped around and cried. 'O Smiles, hit _kaint_ do them things +but hit _does_ do them.' Well, pretty soon, Judd Amos, her brother, come +in and, when he saw it in Lou's arms, his face got as black as a storm +cloud and he went for to take it away from her. + +I just stepped in front of him, and said, 'Judd Amos, if you ever go for +to take that doll baby away from her, or even _touch_ it, I won't never +speak to you again.' + +He was powerful mad with me, but he seen that I meant like I said, so +Lou can keep her doll. And what do you think she has named it? She has +named it Mike. Even Judd had to laugh a little when she said that was +the doll baby's name. + +I am making baskets as fast as ever I can and Judd is going to take them +to the store at Fayville for me. I went down with him and seen the +storekeeper man myself last week, and he promised me to buy all that he +can from me. + +Granddaddy shoots with your rifle gun most every day. He can hit a +string like he used to, but he would not shoot a apple off my head like +a man did in the book that had about Joan of Arc in it, although I +wanted him to. + +I have ritten a piece of poetry like Mr. Eugene Fields did, and this is +it + + The cold may make my lips turn blue, + But it can't freeze my love for you. + +Your happy and loving little friend + + Smiles. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + III + + Commonwealth Avenue + Boston, Massachusetts. + October 24, 1912. + +Proprietor of the General Store, +Fayville, ---- County, +West Virginia. + +Dear Sir: + +I am informed that you are occasionally purchasing, through one Judd +Amos, of Webb's Gap, sweetgrass baskets made by a little mountain girl +of that settlement. + +I am interested in her work, and herewith enclose a money order in the +sum of ten dollars ($10.00) with which I will ask you to purchase at a +rate reasonably in advance of the one you are now paying, all the +baskets which she sends to you. You may express them to my address each +month, and I will forward further funds upon request. + +Please do not mention my name in connection with this transaction; but, +if any questions are asked, merely say that you have obtained a city +market for them. + + Very truly yours, + (Dr.) Donald MacDonald. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + IV + + Webb's Gap. Vir. + November 24, 1912. + +Dear Dr. McDonald: + +How many letters do you guess I have written to you so far this month? +24. Yes, I have written you a long letter every day, telling you all the +things I did, and thought, but of course I did not mail them, for I knew +that you would get tired of reading them. + +But this one I am going to send, for grandfather has asked me to let you +know that he has shot that wild turkey bird for your Thanksgiving--which +is Thursday--and has sent it to you by express package from Fayville. I +was with him when he did it. + +Evenings come right early now and we went into the woods just before sun +down. It was right beautiful, and I wished that you could have been with +us. I will try and tell you what I saw like I do in my daily letters +that my teacher says are practice themes. (I could not have spelled that +to save my life a month ago.) + +Well, except for the big pine trees which never seem to change, just +like granddaddy, all the tall forest people and the half grown-up +children-bushes, had put on bright new dresses in honor of Thanksgiving +time. They were red, made of many colored patches like Bible Joseph's +coat,--yellow green and brown, some as bright as God could paint the +colors, some soft, like they had been washed and washed. + +Granddaddy thought it was beautiful too--although he called it "purty." +But he did not like the brown grass and fallen pine needles, and called +the marsh near the river an ugly mudflat; but _I_ thought it was +beautiful, for that oozy mud was deep purple (the reverend told me the +word), and the little pools of water were all gold. Those are the colors +that kings dress in, yet that old mudflat wore them, too. + +Well, finally, when it began to grow dusk, we found a wild turkey bird +roosting on a tree limb and granddaddy said, 'Hush, I aims ter shoot hit +right thru ther head.' When you get it look where the bullet went. + +Now perhaps you would like to hear about what I have been doing. Well, I +have been doing many things, but most of all I have been studying. + +The minister, whose name is Reverend John Talmadge, came back to our +mountain when it began to get cold, for he is in not very good health +and can't go about much, although he sits out doors most of the time. + +He is my very good friend, and I have found out a lot about him. One +thing is that he went to college like you did, and he knows a great deal +more than there is in all those books, even. So you see he can help me a +good deal. He is even going to teach me some Latin, _D. V._ I think that +God must have sent him to our mountain. + +Every day I study the books you sent, first with him and then at home, +and I am getting along so nice that last week, when the teacher in our +little school was away, they let me be the teacher. + +And who do you think was one of my pupils? It was Judd Amos. He has +bought some books and is learning, too. I reckon he does not want a girl +to be smarter than he is at book learning, which he says is nonsense for +girls. But I know that it is not nonsense. Why, I can travel in far-off +lands and see things that I did not even know _were_, by just reading +books, and the reverend has lent me some to read. + +Then I am still making my baskets, and what do you think? The storeman +is buying all I can send him, and paying me more than he used to for +them! He says that city folks like to buy them for they smell so sweet +and like the woods. I am saving all my money and, with what I had, have +nearly $75 already, and, by next summer, will have over $100. Isn't that +wonderful? Granddaddy pays me 10 cents a week for keeping house for him, +too. Isn't he good? + +Don't you think I ought to be a very happy little girl? Well, I am, and +I guess my face is getting all out of shape, I find so many things to +smile about. + + Your affectionate friend, + Rose. + +P. S. Please give my love and a turkey drumstick to Mike. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + V + + Commonwealth Avenue + Boston, Massachusetts. + December 23, 1912. + +Dear little Smiles: + +Although I am very busy, for the Winter has given colds to many little +folks here, I can not let Christmastide go by without writing a letter +to you, little forest friend. It was very dear of you to send me that +basket of holly, which I found waiting for me when I returned, tired +out, last night. + +Its dark green leaves and bright red berries looked up at me when I +undid it, almost as though they were your personal messengers and were +trying eagerly to say, "Smiles wishes you a Merry Christmas through us." +The basket was indeed a work of art, but to me it seemed even more than +that--a labor of love. + +I could almost imagine you tramping through the snow-covered mountain +woods and gathering the holiday berries, and the picture which my mind +painted was so attractive that I heartily wished I might have been +there, too. + +I am delighted with the accounts of the progress you are making in your +studies, and your all-too-infrequent letters themselves tell the story. +I'm afraid that I shall not know you next summer. Write me just as often +as you feel like doing so, dear, and if I do not always reply you may +know that it is only because I am so very busy. + +Now I have two pieces of news to tell you. I am sure that you will be +very much pleased with one of them and I hope will be with both. + +First, Muriel's mother had a wonderful present just a little ahead of +Christmas day--not from Santa Claus, but from Old Father Stork. It is a +fine baby boy, whose eyes are almost the color of yours, and his name is +to be "Donald MacDonald Thayer." I suppose I have now got to be extra +good in order to set my namesake the right example. + +Knowing how dear all little ones are to your heart, I am sure that you +will be almost as pleased as we are over this happy event, and I can +almost see your sweet face light up with its wonderful smile as you read +this. + +Second, I am engaged to be married some day, if I can ever find time. +_Her_ name is Marion Treville and she is very good and kind, and every +one thinks she is very beautiful, too. + +I hope that you have by this time received the little friendship box +which I sent to you and your grandfather. The dress is a present from +Muriel, who loves your basket more than any of her toys, and continually +speaks of you as her "dear friend Smiles"; the hair ribbon is from Mike +and the book from + + Your sincere friend, + Donald MacDonald. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + VI + + Webb's Gap + January 7, 1913. + +Dear Dr. MacDonald: + +When I tell you that there has been a great deal of trouble here, you +will understand why I have not written you long before this, to thank +you for those lovely Christmas presents. + +Grandfather was delighted with his tobacco, although he has not smoked +it yet, and all my gifts made me very happy. The dress dear little +Muriel sent me is so lovely that I don't believe I shall ever dare to +wear it, especially as, when grandfather saw me in it, he looked so +sorrowful as he said, 'Hit's powerful purty, but hit haint my Smiles no +more,' that he almost made me cry. I wonder if I can really ever leave +him? He needs me very much now. + +Oh, I was so happy for all of you when I read about Muriel having a dear +little baby brother. I sat right down and wrote a verse. The reverend +helped me with some of the words, but still I'm afraid that it is not +very good and I am afraid you will laugh at it. It is the best I can do +now, and I guess I will send it to you in this letter. + +Now I must tell you that your friend, my grandfather, has been very sick +since Christmas. The doctor from Fayville has been to see him several +times and he says the trouble is--I know that you will laugh at me now, +but I can only write what it sounds like to me--'Aunt Jina pecks her +wrist.' He has pains in his heart and has to keep very still, which he +does not like to do, so I am the nurse and, whenever I feed him, or give +him the medicine that the doctor left, I put on my nurse's dress. + +Of course I have not been able to go to the reverend's for my lessons, +and I have not been able to study much, except when grandfather is +asleep; but he--the reverend, I mean--comes to our house as often as he +can, and we take turns in reading aloud to grandfather, sometimes from +the book you sent me, but most times from the Holy Bible, which he likes +best. + +The reverend says that it is better than medicine to sooth a troubled +heart, and I reckon it must be so, for it almost always puts grandfather +to sleep, and the trouble is with his heart, like I told you. + +Then, beside that, a little wild mountain flower was born to a neighbor +of ours last week. We tried--oh, so hard--to make it live, but the cold +was so bitter here that God took pity on it and took it back to his +garden in Paradise. + +At first I could not help crying, and I came home and tore up the verses +that I wrote, but then I remembered what you told me about the Reaper, +and I went back to the poor, sorrowful mother and told her. And I +remembered what you said about making people smile by smiling myself, so +I did that, too. + +This is not a very happy letter, but grandfather is getting better every +day, and summer will soon be here now. The new year seems to me like the +top of a snow covered mountain. When we have climbed over it, it is not +long before we can hurry down into the valley where the sun is warm and +the flowers bloom. + + Your affectionate friend, + Rose Webb. + +P. S. I am very glad that you are going to be married. + +(The Enclosure) + + Deep the world with snow was covered, + Cold and barren was the earth, + Low the Christmas angels hovered + As a little babe had birth. + + Just a tender little flower, + Dropped upon the world below + Out of God's eternal bower-- + Pink as sunrise, white as snow. + + But the little blossom stranger, + As its earthly life it starts, + Need fear neither cold nor danger, + For 'tis planted _in our hearts_. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + VII + + "Thayerhurst" + Manchester-by-the-sea. + August 15, 1913. + +My dear little Smiles: + +This is going to be a very short letter, and can you guess why? Early +next month I am going to run away from my work and everything here, and +hurry down to your mountain for two whole weeks of wonderful vacation. +So the next time you hear from me the words will come from my lips +instead of my pen. + +I have been very glad indeed to hear that Big Jerry has been so well +this summer, and I am sure that he has many more years of virile health +ahead of him. I am keenly looking forward to seeing him cut a string +with the new rifle. + +The weather has been terribly hot in Boston this month and caused much +suffering, but it is quite cool and very pleasant here by the ocean. + +Every night that it is possible, I spend here with my sister's family, +partly because I love to see my little namesake, even for a moment, +partly to escape the city's heat and obtain some really refreshing rest. +It makes me almost ashamed sometimes, when I think how comfortable I am, +and how uncomfortable are the little children in the crowded city, most +of whom have no woods, fields and streams like yours to play in, and +many of whom never see anything out of doors except dirty, paved streets +which get so hot that they burn the feet, even though the fire engine +men frequently send rushing streams of water through them. + +But I know that a fighter must always keep in the best possible +condition, and we doctors _and nurses_ have declared war on an enemy who +has killed millions and millions, and never takes a day off. + +I wonder how you will like the ocean when you see it. Very much, I am +sure, it is so immensely big--like the sky--so beautiful, and more full +of ever-changing colors than even your mountains. + +They tell me that little Muriel plays beside it all day long on the fine +white sand and over the rocks, while baby brother lies near by on a +blanket, kicking and gurgling, and holding long, wordless conversations +with the white clouds and sea birds high overhead. + +This has been a much longer letter than I expected it to be, and now I +must chop it off short with just five more words, + + Your affectionate friend, + Donald MacDonald. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HIGH HILLS, AND "GOD'S MAN" + + + Sun hath sunk in radiant splendor, + Now the colors fade away + And the moon, with light more tender, + Sheds its silver on the bay. + + Eventide is softly casting + O'er the earth a magic spell, + And a love-song, everlasting, + On the night wind seems to swell. + + Deeper grow the lengthening shadows, + Darkening the heaven's blue, + One by one the stars are gleaming, + Night is nigh, would you were, too. + +Donald hummed the words in his not unmelodious baritone, as he climbed +up the forest path down which, twelve months before, he had rushed +headlong, in blind anger. + +The spell of the high, forest-clad hills, and the new-born night was upon +his spirit. Pleasant anticipations filled his heart, and left no room +for painful recollection as he hastened over the needle-strewn pathway +on which the white radiance of the full moon, shining through the +branches, made a tracery of silver and black. + +Let men whose minds are governed wholly by cold commonsense, and whose +souls hold no spark of vitalizing imagination, scoff at moon-witchery +and lunar madness. Let them declare that the earth's haunting satellite +is merely a dead world which cannot even shine with its own light. Magic +it _does_ wield. And, just as it distorts and magnifies all commonplace, +familiar objects, so it twists the thoughts of men; just as it steals +away the natural colors from the things of earth, and substitutes for +them those of its own conception, so it alters the hues of man's +meditation. + +The usually exuberant Mike trotted in silence, close to his master's +heels, and now and then cast suspicious glances aloft at the tall +spectre things which he knew to be trees. + +Donald knew that it was rather absurd of him to be toiling up the +five-mile mountain path that night, when the next morning would have +done just as well; but he had thankfully thrown off the shackles of +civilization along with its habiliments. For two free, full weeks he +meant to live like a child of the out-of-doors, and to draw a brimming +supply of new energy from Mother Nature's never-failing breasts. Every +moment was precious. + +As he neared the Gap, his winging thoughts flew ahead to Big Jerry's +cabin and to the child-woman who had so attracted him a year before. +Once more he told himself that she was nothing to him, and that now, +especially, he had no right to allow her, child though she were, to hold +so large a place in his heart. Yet what chance has reason in +competition with moonlight? + +The clearing, with the cabin beyond it, came into view. The little house +was likewise a victim of the prevailing necromancy, for its rough, +hand-split and weatherbeaten shingles were now a shimmering +olive-silver. + +Mike gave voice to a joyful yelp, and tried to crowd past his owner's +legs, for he had seen, or sensed, Rose even before the latter became +aware of the presence of their little friend. She was standing, alone, +on the outer edge of the tiny stoop, whose darkened doorway formed a +black background, against which her figure appeared, cameo-like. The +flooding brightness lifted her form and face, seen in profile, into +sharp relief, and the shadow which it cast on the grass made her appear +the more tall and slender. Grown and subtly altered she undoubtedly was, +thought Donald. The girlish curves and lithesomeness had not departed; +but they carried a suggestion of approaching maturity. Her wavy hair no +longer hung unbound about her face, but was dressed in two braids, one +of which had fallen forward across her breast. Shoes and stockings +covered her legs; but the simple dress still left her neck and arms +bare, and the flesh was robbed of its color and made alabaster, the +golden threads stolen from the dark hair and replaced by a silver sheen, +so that there was something ethereal, but startlingly beautiful, in the +picture. + +Holding the violently wriggling Mike in check, one hand on his collar, +the other grasping his jaws, Donald stole silently forward until he had +passed the corner of the cabin, and his own shadow had crept forward, +and laid itself at the girl's feet. + +Suddenly she perceived it, and turned with a question in her shadowy +eyes. Her lips parted, then curved into the familiar magic smile, as she +cried, "Oh, Doctor MacDonald. You've _come_." + +Mike twisted free, and, with a mad bound and wiggle, threw himself on +the girl, who caught him in her arms. Then, holding him against her, she +somehow succeeded in extending one hand, shapely and slender, to meet +the man's two eager ones. + +"Oh, grandpap," she thrilled through the doorway. "Hurry out hyar. Dr. +Mac hes come fer ter see ye." + +A sense of vague disappointment possessed Donald as he heard her lapse +into the musical, but provincial, dialect; but, seeming to read his +thought that the year of study had not been able to alter it, she +whispered, "I always talk like I used to, to him, for he likes it best." + +"I see, and you're quite right, too," was his low-voiced reply, as he +heard the old man's heavy tread crossing the bare floor within. + +"Wall, wall, stranger. We air shor'ly powerful pleased fer ter welcome +ye ergin," came in Big Jerry's deep and hearty voice, as he emerged from +the darkness, and caught Donald's hand in the old, crushing vise. + +For a few moments they all chatted happily, and then Jerry said, "Erfore +I fergits hit, us wants ye ter stay up hyar this trip. Ther loft-room +air yourn, an' leetle Rose hes fixed hit up special fer ye--curtains et +ther window, er rag rug on ther floor, an' ther Lawd knows what else." + +"Do you really want me to?" cried the newcomer in pleased surprise. + +"Of course we really want you," answered the happy girl. + +"Then, by Jove, I'll be only too glad to, although I had not thought of +such a thing." + +"I allows thet yo' kin regard this hyar cabin as yo'r home whenever +yo're hyarerbouts, an' we wants fer ye ter feel thet hit _air_ home," +said the giant with simple courtesy. + +"I can't tell you how much that means to me--real hospitality like +that," began Donald, hesitatingly. "You know I ... I haven't any real +home and haven't had ... since mother left us, and my sister was +married. Of course," he added hastily, "my rooms are pleasant and +comfortable, and all that; but they're only a place to work, sleep and +eat in, and there isn't any of that indefinably vital something--a soul, +perhaps--which makes a _real_ home a sacred spot, no matter how big or +how small it may be. I get frightfully lonely there, sometimes." + +"I didn't allow thet a man could git lonely in the city," replied Jerry. + +"'In the city?' My dear man, one can be _twice_ as lonely there as any +place I know of. The very life makes for shut-inness, in mind as well as +body, and there are thousands and thousands of men, and women, too, +there, who know scarcely a soul outside of the very few with whom their +daily work brings them in contact; and _they_ are mere acquaintances, +not friends. They see only the four walls of the rooms in which they +work and sleep, and the walled-in streets between the two. + +"These very streets seem to me to typify the city's life--so hard, so +filled with hurrying, jostling crowds of people, all equally intent upon +their own narrow, selfish affairs, people who would think a fellow crazy +if he spoke to them pleasantly, as you did to me the first time I saw +you. There are thousands who never even lift their eyes to the narrow +strips of sky between the tall buildings. _They_--and they only--know +what real loneliness is. + +"Of course I'm not one of those unfortunates," he added quickly, "for I +have many friends, and am making new ones daily; but that is the +atmosphere I live in fifty weeks of the year. Do you wonder that it gets +on my nerves at times, and that I long to run away from it all and get +into the big, open spaces in the warm heart of friendly nature? + +"Do you think that I can ever feel lonesome in the forest and fields, +with living things always about me which are ready to share themselves +with me?" + +"I reckon I haint never thought uv thet. This hyar mountain country +air's whar I hev lived in contentment all my life, an' I allows thet +hit's good ernough fer me ter keep on livin' in, twill I dies." + +Rose remained silent, although obviously disturbed by Donald's words; +but, before she could voice her thoughts, another figure quietly joined +the group--a tall, stooping man, clean shaven, and with an aesthetic +countenance seemingly out of its natural environment. + +"Why, it's my minister man," cried Rose joyfully. "Wherever did you come +from?" + +"My wanderings brought me close home, and I could not pass by without +calling on my two good friends in Webb's Gap." + +"An' we air downright glad fer ter see ye, reverend," answered the host. +"This hyar air the doctor man from the city, what leetle Rose hes told +ye so much erbout." + +Donald already felt drawn to the strange divine, their common interest +in the girl acting as a lode-stone, and he clasped his hand with +friendly pressure. The other returned it less vigorously, but no less +sincerely, and Donald experienced a peculiar mesmeric thrill which +startled him a little. + +"Perhaps I should apologize," began Mr. Talmadge in a low voice, the +timbre of which still retained the resonance of early culture. "I came +on this happy scene--or at least to the corner of the house--while you +were speaking of life in the city, and I could not very well help +pausing and listening. + +"I know your feelings only too well, Dr. MacDonald. I was born, bred and +worked in New York until my health became undermined by just such +influences as you mentioned; and I was forced to run away, too, and seek +the hills 'whence cometh my help.'" + +"And deep in your inner consciousness you don't regret the change, do +you?" asked Donald. + +"No. Perhaps I am selfish--a shirker--and there are times when the old +call to get back where I know that the need is greatest comes like a +clarion. But for myself, the disaster--which once seemed like a +curse--has turned out to be a blessing, as is so often the case. I have +learned a great lesson, doctor." + +"What lesson?" queried Rose. + +"God's," responded the minister, quietly. "It may seem strange to you, +my dear, but, although I was reared in a religious family, went through +a great theological school, and was the rector of a city church for ten +years, I never fully knew Him until I came here." + +"Why, Mr. Talmadge!" gasped the girl in astonishment, while Donald said +bluntly, "Do you really believe that you know Him, now?" + +"I do. Not, of course, in all the fullness of His mysterious majesty, +but as a friend whose ways are no longer hidden from my eyes." + +"Frankly, I wish I might say as much," said the doctor. "I, too, was +brought up in a religious household, but small good it did me, for, when +I became old enough to think for myself, the glaring errors and +inconsistencies in my childhood belief became so apparent that I became +hopeless of ever understanding the truth which might lie within that +astonishing maze. I quit going to church long ago." + +"Doctors are generally regarded as an atheistic lot," smiled the +minister. + +"That's slander. We may--in the aggregate--be agnostic.... I suppose +that I am." + +"I ... I don't understand," said Rose in distress, "but I don't like for +to hear yo' say that, Dr. Mac." + +"It may not be as bad as it sounds, my child," laughed Mr. Talmadge. "An +atheist is indeed a terrible person, who doesn't believe in our heavenly +Father, but an agnostic is only one who confesses that he doesn't know +... but may be quite willing to learn." + +"Oh, learn ... I mean teach him, then," she said earnestly. "You are +God's man and know everything about Him, Mr. Talmadge." + +"Indeed I don't--far from it, and I imagine that your friend doesn't +want to hear a sermon on the mount." + +"_I_ do," she cried, "there's lot of things I want to hear about, but +I've always been afraid to ask you, till now." + +Rather gruffly Donald added his word, "I hope that I am broad-minded +enough not only to receive, but to welcome, any light on a subject which +is, I imagine, the most vitally important one in life." + +"Well, then, suppose we hold a little spiritual clinic for our Rose's +benefit primarily, remembering that where two or three are gathered +together in His name, God will be with them. And, after all, what time +could be more fitting than this silent, holy night; what place more +suitable than this great temple of the out-of-doors, for us simple +children of His to seek understanding?" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"SMILES'" CONSECRATION + + +If, half an hour previous, Donald had been told that, during the first +evening of his long anticipated visit to his forest of enchantment, he +was to play the part of patient in a spiritual clinic, conducted by a +wandering backwood preacher for the instruction of a seventeen-year-old +mountain girl--as well as for his own enlightenment--he would have +scoffed at the idea; yet, oddly enough, he felt no sense of displeasure +or antagonism. + +In the company of this unaffected man of God, the simple old mountaineer +and the equally simple girl only, vanished all the self-conscious +reserve and reticence which usually attacks the modern city dweller when +called upon to speak of things spiritual and eternal, and which had so +often bound Donald's tongue, even when his inner being cried aloud for +expression. + +"I hardly blame you for your attitude of mind, doctor," began Mr. +Talmadge. "Although it is certain that the knowledge of God starts from +Himself a ray of pure white light, the dogmas, creeds and +theologies--invented by many men of many minds--have raised between it +and our spiritual eyes a glass clouded with earthly murkiness, through +which we now see darkly. Only as mankind grows in spiritual stature, and +lifts his head above the clouds, can he hope to see the ray in all its +purity and glory." + +"Yes, I suppose that's so," assented Donald. "But I'm afraid that my +difficulties lie deeper than the unessential differences in dogma. +However, since our little friend is the one who has questions to ask, +let her conduct the catechism." + +Rose was speechless with embarrassment, but finally managed to say, "I +reckon I'm so ignorant, that I can't say the things that are in my +heart. Please, Dr. Mac, you ask the reverend the questions and let me +just sit and listen. Only don't use too big words, for I want to +understand." + +"All right, I'll be cross-examiner, but please believe, Mr. Talmadge, +that what I may say is not intended to be argumentative, but rather +honestly inquisitive. I really would like to find out if any one can +reasonably explain some of the many things in religion to the acceptance +of which I have been unable to reconcile myself." + +"I'll do it gladly, if I can. But, before you begin, let me apologize +for what I said in ill-timed jest about doctors being atheists. I +suppose that, in one sense, there isn't a more truly religious class of +men in the world." + +"I can't agree to that, either," said Donald. + +"Perhaps not, but tell me this. Isn't the structure and functionings of +the human body infinitely more wonderful to you, who have made an +intimate study of it, than it can be to us who have not?" + +"Undoubtedly. It's the most marvellous thing on God's earth," answered +Donald, unthinkingly employing an expression heard in childhood. + +"There!" cried Mr. Talmadge. "He's convicted out of his own mouth, isn't +he, Rose? 'God's earth', he says." + +"A mere figure of speech," the physician laughed. + +"A statement of fact, sir. There are mighty few of you doctors who will +not, within your hearts of hearts, agree that a Supreme Being must have +designed this earthly temple which we call our body, the world we dwell +in, and established the laws that govern both. And, knowing, as none +others can, _how_ wonderfully the former is constructed, is not a +doctor's appreciation of the Almighty's power bound to be sincere?" + +"Granted. But that isn't being religious," Donald protested. + +"It is the foundation of all true religion," was the quiet answer. + +The physician was still dubious. "Well, perhaps. Still, I doubt if many +ministers would agree that merely because a man may believe in a +superhuman creative power, he is religious, if, at the same time he +says--as I must--that he doesn't and can't subscribe to many of the +things which we were taught as children to believe as 'gospel truth.'" + +There was the sound of a shocked and troubled "Oh," from Rose, but the +minister's composure was in no wise ruffled. + +"The trouble is, I imagine, that you have mentally outgrown the +willingness to accept certain statements blindly, as children and +primitive minds do, and yet have made no really earnest endeavor to lift +the veil and look behind it with the intent of finding out if a simple +and understandable truth may not lie hidden there." + +"But how is one going to get behind a plain statement of what is +apparently meant to be fact, such as the description of the creation in +Genesis?" demanded Donald, somewhat impatiently. "Science is absolute, +and I, for one, know that the Darwinian theory of life, or one +substantially like it, is true. Why, a study of human anatomy proves it, +even if we did not have conclusive evidence in anthropology and geology. +So, in the very first words of the Bible, we start off with a conflict +between its tenets, and what human learning shows us to be an +indisputable fact." + +"Do we?" smiled the minister. + +"Don't we?" answered Donald. + +Rose sat looking first at one, then at the other, with a puzzled look in +her eyes, for it was all Greek to her. + +Noticing this, Mr. Talmadge said, "I guess that we've started a bit too +strongly for our little listener, but we want her to accompany us from +the start," and he briefly, in simple words, outlined the Darwinian +theory, which brought an outraged grunt from Big Jerry. Then he turned +back to Donald, and said, "Take the story of ... well, say the prodigal +son, for an example. Was that the account of real happenings, think +you?" + +"Of course not. Merely a parable." The other's mind reverted to the one +which he himself had preached by letter to little "Smiles." + +"The Bible is filled with parables," said Mr. Talmadge, simply. "Why +should we regard certain stories as allegories merely, and others as +historically accurate statements of fact when they are difficult to +credit as such? Especially why should we do so in the face of the +obvious fact that the earlier part of the Old Testament is simply +tradition, handed down, orally at first, by an intensely patriotic and +rather vain race? _Sacred_ tradition it is, to be sure; but that should +not deter us from endeavoring to analyze it in the light of reason. +Besides, hasn't it ever occurred to you that in a translation from the +original Hebrew, some of the finer meanings of the old words are sure to +have been lost or distorted?" + +"Yes, I suppose that is so." + +"As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word '_Yom_,' which, in the story of +the Creation, has been translated 'day,' also means 'period.' And it is +a rather interesting thing, in this connection, that the biblical +account mentions an evening to each of the first six 'days,' but not to +the seventh, which shows that _it_ isn't finished yet. Science tells us +that this last period, since the creation of mankind, has already +lasted many thousands of years--although the length of time ascribed to +it varies greatly--and this gives us some idea of how long those other +'days' might have been. Besides, in this case, we do not have to be +'finicky' about the meaning of the ancient word, for in the Psalms there +is a verse which says that a thousand years in _His_ sight are ..." + +"Are but as yesterday," Rose completed the quotation in her gentle +voice. "You see, those were God's days, not ours." + +"Well, I'll be ... blessed," said Donald. "It is logical enough, isn't +it? The trouble in this case, at least, was that I never consciously +tried to reconcile what I regarded as the old and new beliefs." + +"But, Mr. Talmadge," Smiles' perplexed voice broke in. "If human beings +just developed from a kind of monkey ..." + +"The anthropoid ape wasn't exactly a monkey, although he may have looked +and acted like one," laughed Donald. + +"Well, but how could the Good Book say that God created man in His own +image?" + +"Do you remember what Paul said, in his wonderful epistle to the +Corinthians? He answered your question when he wrote, 'There is a +natural body, and there is a spiritual body ... and as we have borne the +image of the earthly, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly.' +What does the Bible say that God is, Rose?" + +"'God is a spirit,'" whispered Smiles, reverently. + +"Exactly. And Dr. MacDonald will tell you that 'spirit' comes from a +Latin word which means 'breath.' When God perceived that some of the +earth creatures had, according to His plan, developed sufficiently in +mind so that they could rule the world, He breathed into them some of +His own spirit, and thus created them in His own image--for of course a +spirit hasn't form and shape like beings of flesh and blood." + +"Hasn't He?" gasped the girl. "Why, there is a picture of Him, like a +great big man with long beard, in my Bible." + +"Merely symbolic, dear child, and I have always felt that it was a vain +symbolism, in both senses of that word. You look them up in your new +dictionary to-morrow. In trying hard to picture God, men have made Him +in the likeness of the most wonderful things their eyes had ever +seen--themselves--and just increased His size. As for the beard, that is +supposed to be a sign of power and strength. + +"Of course, in fact, God isn't a man or even a super-man, but a spirit, +combining the spiritual elements of both male and female." + +"I reckon I jest hev ter think of er somebody fer ter worship," broke in +the hitherto silent Jerry. "Jest something like ther wind air er bit too +onsartain fer me." + +"And for millions of others," answered the minister quickly. "Of course +there isn't the slightest bit of harm in people thinking of Our Heavenly +Father as a Being with a form which our eyes might see if they were only +given the power to behold heavenly, as well as earthly, things. The +conception of the Omnipotent as a physical embodiment has in the past +been of incalculable advantage in making an appeal to an aboriginal type +of mind, since it really requires some sort of material personification, +which it can at least visualize, the conception of which serves as an +incentive for well-doing, and a deterrent from evil doing. It is +therefore infinitely preferable as a working basis to an unembodied +force." + +Big Jerry brought a smile to the lips of the other two men by bursting +out, "Durned ef I understand. Them words air too powerful ederkated fer +me." + +"But," said Rose, "what you say kind of frightens me, Mr. Talmadge. If +we can't ever see God, even in Heaven, how can we be sure that He _is_?" + +"Have you ever seen ... love?" queried the minister softly. + +"No, sir." + +"Yet you know that _it_ is. You've never seen, tasted, touched or +smelled thought, but you know that it exists. In the same mysterious way +we know, and we shall know more perfectly hereafter, that the Great +Spirit--I've always loved that beautiful Indian expression--_is_." + +"Yes," she said, somewhat uncertainly. "I _think_ that I understand. But +it's powerful hard to understand how I can be His little child if He +isn't a person." + +"I don't wonder that it puzzles you, dear. It is hard for even the +oldest of us to try to imagine something entirely different from what we +have actually seen with our mortal eyes, and we can hardly conceive of a +spirit, or even a ghost, as something without some sort of a form, even +though it be a very misty one. But the _real_ you isn't the flesh that +we can see and touch, but the spirit that dwells inside, and, just as +some of your earthly father and mother is in your body, so you have +something of God within you, which was given you at birth. We call it +..." + +"My soul." + +"Yes. And as that was part of Him you are His child ... so are we +all--spiritual children." + +"And Jesus? Was He His son in the same way?" whispered the girl. + +"Exactly, only to a far greater degree than we can hope to be, for to +Him the Heavenly Father gave His spirit in fuller measure than He ever +had before to mankind, so that He might set an example to the world and +teach us the way we should try to live." + +There was silence for a moment, and then Smiles spoke the thought that +had been troubling her. "But, Mr. Talmadge, if God hasn't any body and +our spirits are like him, why heaven ..." + +Mr. Talmadge sent a glance of smiling appeal at the doctor as though to +say, "Now I'm in for it. How can I explain heaven as a spiritual +condition?" Aloud he said, "I won't pretend to know just what heaven is +like, but, of course, our spirits won't need an earth like this to walk +on." + +"But," persisted the child, "the Good Book says that there are many +mansions there, and golden streets, and also that it is a land flowing +with milk and honey." + +"So it does, and very likely there are, in the realms of the spirit, +things which correspond to those that we have known on earth, but I am +quite sure that they are not _material_ things." + +"Ef thar haint no real heaven, thar haint no real hell," broke in Big +Jerry, whose mind had been slowly grasping the meaning of the minister's +words. "I reckon thar must be a place uv punishment fer sinners." + +Painstakingly, as though explaining to a child, Mr. Talmadge answered, +"Mr. Webb, did you ever do something wrong, because of which your +conscience troubled you later?" + +"Reckon I hev. Reckon I suffered the torments uv the damned fer hit." + +"Did you ever burn your hand?" + +"Yes, I done thet, too; powerful bad." + +"Which caused you the most suffering, your conscience or your hand?" + +"I erlows thet my conscience done hit." + +"That is the answer to your implied question. God doesn't need to give +us new bodies, and send them into a place of fire and brimstone to +punish us for our sins. If the soul suffers, it is in hell, even though +it may still be in our mortal bodies. That it must suffer, when we do +wrong, we know. But, Mr. Webb, I do not think that it is meant to be +punishment in the sense of retribution--getting even--so much as it is +for correction. You know that men put gold through the fire to purge it +of the dross that makes it dim and lustreless. That is what the fires of +the spirit are for; that is why the Bible speaks of Hell as a place of +fire. It is another parable." + +"Yes, I see," said Rose, but the old man shook his head, unconvinced. +Then the girl asked suddenly, "But why was God so good as to give us +part of Himself and let us make it impure and suffer, Mr. Talmadge?" + +"Ah, now you are getting into the depths of religion and I'd rather not +discuss that until you have had a chance to think over what we have +talked about already. All that I wanted to do to-night was to get both +you, and the doctor, to thinking for yourselves. Come and see me, +doctor, if you want to continue this discussion. I've got theories on +any subject that you may mention, I guess," he laughed. "But I won't +count the evening wasted--even leaving out the pleasure I have had--if I +have helped to open your eyes, ever so little, to the light." + +"Oh, you have ... and mine, too," answered Rose. "I mean to think +_hard_, but if I get very puzzled, I'll come to see you about it. But, +anyway, I mean to be God's little child all my life--as well as a +trained nurse. And I mean to help Dr. Mac, always, to be a child of our +heavenly Father, too," she added, simply. As Donald arose to bid the +minister good-night, his eyes were a little misty, for the girl's +unaffected declaration had moved him more deeply than he had ever been +moved in his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ADOPTION BY BLOOD + + +For a little while Donald lay awake under the eaves in his loft room, +but his sleeplessness was the result neither of worry or nervous +tension. His mind, indeed, was unusually contented. None of the +disturbing thoughts of difficult tasks on the morrow assailed it; he +felt only an unwonted peace and contentment. The impressions left by the +evening's talk still swayed and uplifted his soul. Yet, deep within his +consciousness, there was a vague realization that it would be long, if +ever, before he could hope to pattern his life by the precepts of the +man of God who had so stirred him. Happily, he could not foresee how +soon mortal passions were to repossess him wholly, to blot out the new +spiritual light which was his. + +In her little room below, Rose, too, lay awake, her youthful mind +teeming with wonderful, new ideas garnered from the seeds sown by the +"reverend"; but the insistent call of slumber to her tired, healthy body +in time lulled her busy thoughts to rest. + + * * * * * + +"Oh, Doctor Mac, come _quick_! Grandpappy's hurted." + +Sound asleep, and even then visioning the girl whose terrified voice +suddenly wove itself into the figment of his dream, when the first word +fell upon his ears, Donald was wide awake, and he was half out of bed +before the last was spoken. + +He paused only long enough to draw on his hunting breeches and thrust +his bare feet into their tramping boots--which left a hiatus of +unstockinged muscular calf--hurriedly dropped down the ladder, and in +two strides was out of doors. + +Near the wood pile stood the old mountaineer, on his countenance +expression of mingled pain and chagrin, the latter dominating. His right +hand still grasped the keen-edged axe, while Rose stood beside him, +clasping his brawny left forearm with both of her small but sinewy +hands. + +As Donald approached them on the run he noticed that the girl had +sacrificed her treasured hair ribbon to make a tourniquet halfway up the +old man's arm, and that blood was running down his hand and falling from +the finger tips with slow, rhythmical continuity. + +"Hit haint nothin' et all, Smiles," Big Jerry was rumbling forth. "Hit +air jest er scratch. I don't know how I come fer ter do hit an' I reckon +I ought ter be plumb ershamed. Why, Smiles, I been erchoppin' wood fer +nigh onter fifty year, an' I haint never chopped myself erfore. Hit war +thet tarnation knot. But hit haint nothin', this hyar haint." + +"Come over to the well where we can give it a wash," was Donald's curt +command, and Big Jerry followed him obediently, while the girl hastened +ahead and drew up a bucket full of pure, sparkling, ice-cold spring +water. The doctor tipped it unceremoniously over the giant's arm, and, +as the already coagulating blood on the surface was washed away, made a +hasty examination of the slanting, ugly gash beneath. + +"Superficial wound. No artery or major muscle severed," he announced, as +though addressing a class. "Still, you were right in taking the +precaution of applying that tourniquet, Rose. I suppose it was bleeding +pretty merrily at first." + +"Hit war spoutin' powerful," she answered, in her stress of excitement +lapsing into the language of childhood. + +"Yes, I suppose so. That is in a way a good thing in such cases, +however. It automatically cleanses the wound of any infectious matter. +Look, Rose," he added, as though explaining to a clinic, "see how the +blood is thickening up into a clot? That is chiefly the work of what we +call 'white corpuscles'--infinitely tiny little organisms whose sole +purpose in life is to eat up disease germs which may get into the veins, +and to hurry to the surface when there is a cut, cluster together and +die, their bodies forming a wall against the wicked enemies who are +always anxious to get inside the blood for the purpose of making +trouble." + +"I told ye 'twarnt nothin'," said Big Jerry, not without a note of +relief in his voice, however. "A leetle blood-lettin' won't do me no +hurt. I'll jest wind a rag eround hit, an' ..." + +"Not so fast," laughed Donald. "In all probability 'a rag just wound +round it' would do the business, for your blood is apparently in +first-class condition, with its full share of the red corpuscles; but +you might just as well have the benefit of the hospital corps since we +are on the ground. The red corpuscles," he added, addressing Smiles, +"are the other good little chaps who continually go hurrying through the +body, feeding it with oxygen and making it strong. Run into the house +and get my 'first aid' kit, from my knapsack, child. You'll remember it +when you see it, for I had to dig it out the very first time that I saw +you." + +The girl hurried cabinwards, fleet as the wind, and, as the two men sat +down on a woodpile to wait for her, Donald had an opportunity to take +note of his ludicrously inadequate costume. + +It seemed little more than a minute before Rose returned with his kit, +but it was not brought by a mountain maid. In that almost incredibly +short time the child had changed her gingham dress for the immaculate +costume of a trained nurse, and the transformation in apparel had been +accompanied by one in mien no less noticeable. Dainty and fair as a +white wild rose she was, yet seriously businesslike in expression. +Donald was startled for a moment. It came to his mind that he was +looking upon a vision of the years to come, and the picture caused his +heart to beat a little faster; but, although the light of appreciation +shone in his eyes, his only comment was, "Are your hands as clean as +that dress?" + +"Yes, doctor." + +"Now how the deuce did she come to use that stereotyped response?" he +wondered; then said, aloud, "Then undo that roll of gauze bandage and +tear off a piece about six feet long ... be careful! Don't let it touch +the ground." + +Then he immediately gave his attention to Big Jerry, and smiled with +professional callousness as he caught the giant's wince when the +antiseptic fluid which he poured on the wound started it smarting. + +"Now for your first lesson in the scientific application of a bandage, +Smiles," he said. + +Very carefully she followed his directions, and at length the split end +was tied with professional neatness. But, as his fingers tested the +knot, the girl seized one of his hands and exclaimed, with solicitude, +"Why, you're hurt, too, Doctor Mac!" + +She indicated on one of his fingers a small jagged tear from which the +blood was slowly oozing. + +"How the dickens did I do that?" he demanded in surprise. + +"Sliding down the ladder from the loft-room, I reckon. See, there's a +piece of splinter in it still." + +"Right-o, Miss Detective." He turned to the old man and remarked, "It +looks as though your blood and mine had been mixing, this morning. Why +not complete the ceremony and make it an adoption by blood; the way they +used to do in some of the Indian tribes, you know?" he added, half +jestingly, and acting on a sudden impulse. "You can take me into the +clan as ... well, as your foster-son." + +"Thar haint no clan nowadays, I reckon, but ef yo' wants fer ter be my +foster-son I'd shor' be pleased fer ter hev ye es such, lad." + +"Great. I feel like 'one of the family' already, and if you _will_ adopt +me as a new son--with all the privileges and obligations of one--I'll +appreciate it, no joking." + +As a pledge of their compact the city and mountain man clasped hands +solemnly, while Rose stood by, delightedly smiling her benediction upon +their act. "Why," she cried, "that makes me your little foster sister, +Doctor Mac. Oh, I'm so glad!" + +"Yes, so it does." Donald answered with a cheery voice, but no sooner +were the words spoken than a sense of rebellion took possession of him. +"Idiot!" he muttered, shaking off the feeling with an effort of his +will. + +"But haint ... aren't you going to do up your hurt finger, too?" she +queried anxiously. + +The man seized the broken sliver with his fingers and jerked it out, +examined the tiny incision and then thrust the wounded member into his +mouth. "Don't ever tell any of my patients that you saw me do this," he +laughed, with a return to good humor, "but that is my way of treating a +minor injury ... then I forget it. It's a fearful secret," he added, +lowering his voice, "but nature, aided by sun and air, are wonderful +healers, and just ordinary saliva, if a person is healthy, is both +cleansing and healing." + +"Thet air the way anumals cures thar hurts," remarked Jerry. + +"Yes, it is nature's way, and if the blood is pure, and the cut not so +deep as to make infection likely, there isn't a much better one, after +all. However, Miss Nurse, you may practice your art on my finger, too, +if you want." + +He held his hand out, and, flushing with childish happiness, Rose bound +up the little scratch painstakingly, answering Donald's brief word of +commendation with a flashing smile. Indeed, experience with many nurses +of many grades of ability made him aware that her untrained fingers held +an unusual degree of natural knack which augured well for the future. + +During a simple breakfast, leisurely eaten, the trio talked over in +detail the varied happenings of the year that had passed, and Donald was +as astonished as he was pleased to discover what diligent application +the girl had exercised in her studying, and what results she had +attained, despite the manifold handicaps under which she had labored. +Her ministerial friend and mentor had truly guided her feet far along +the lower levels of learning. Yet the old and well-remembered childish +charm had been in no wise lessened, and the unaffected simplicity with +which she dropped into the mountain tongue, when speaking to her +grandfather, caused Donald to glow with sympathetic appreciation. + +As they finished eating, Big Jerry remarked, "Hit air a powerful fine +mornin' fer ter spend huntin', my boy. I reckon yo'll wish ter git inter +the woods right smart, an' ef yo' desires ter make a day uv hit, +Smiles'll fix ye up er leetle lunch ter take erlong." + +"Oh, I'm not exactly sure what I shall do," answered Donald, with slight +hesitation. "Perhaps what I need most, to start with, is just plain +rest, and I rather guess I'll laze around this morning, and maybe go +down to Fayville to get my grip this afternoon." + +"Wall, thet air a good idee. Jest make yo'rself ter home. I've got a +leetle bizness ter attend to up the mountain a piece, an' I allows yo' +kin git erlong 'thout me fer a while." He departed, disappearing with +surprising rapidity, and left the man and girl together. + +Donald sank onto the doorstep, leaned against the side post, and sucked +away at his pipe with lazy contentment, alternately watching Rose as she +flew busily about her simple household duties, and sending his gaze out +over the broad stretch of peaceful mountainside, which lay dozing in the +warm morning sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE THREE OF HEARTS + + +At length Donald said, abruptly, "You haven't asked me anything about +Miss Treville, Smiles." + +There was a perceptible pause in the girl's dish-drying, and the simple +mountain ballad that she was happily humming broke off in the middle of +a minor cadence. The man regarded her with curiosity as she slowly +approached him, saying, "I didn't mean to be so forgetful, doctor, and +I'm plumb ashamed. I should be pleased to have you tell me all about +her." + +"Why, I don't know as there is much to tell," he replied, a little +nonplussed by the unexpectedness of the implied question. "Of course she +is very nice and very lovely, as I wrote you." + +"What does she look like?" + +"I am afraid that I cannot hope to give a very accurate description of +her, Rose. It would perhaps be easier if you had ever visited an art +museum, and seen statues of some of the Greek goddesses, for people say +that she looks like one of them. You see she is quite tall for a +woman--almost as tall as I am myself--and ... well, her form and the way +she carries herself is queenly. Then she has hair darker than yours, +and ... her eyes are gray, I guess, although, come to think of it, I +never noticed particularly. She isn't pretty like a wild-flower, but +very beautiful, more like a stately cultivated bloom. When you have seen +conservatory blossoms you will know better what I mean. She is very +serious, too. Even when she is quite happy it is sometimes a bit hard to +tell it, for she seldom really smiles.... I wish she would," he added, +as though to himself, "she has wonderful teeth." + +"Oh, she must be very lovely," mused Rose, and added with slight +hesitancy, "I reckon you must love her powerful." + +"Yes, of course," Donald answered, and then added, as though a logical +reason for his affection was necessary, "You see, I have known Marion +all her life. She is my sister's closest friend, and almost grew up in +our house." + +"I wish I had," said Rose, the note of envy in her voice being +outweighed by the childlike sincerity which her words carried. "What +does she do?" + +"Do? Why, I don't know, exactly--what all society girls, with plenty of +money at their disposal, do, I suppose. Of course she has clubs which +she belongs to, and she goes to dances and theatres and ... I think she +is interested in some sort of charity, too." He had an uncomfortable +feeling that he was failing to make out a very strong case for the woman +to whom he was engaged, and at the same time wondering why any +vindication of her should seem necessary, since he had always regarded +her as a bit too perfect, if anything. + +"Oh, that is lovely, for the Bible says that the greatest of all is +charity," cried Rose, her eyes sparkling. "And does she go about helping +poor, lonesome city people, and the dear little poor children? It must +be wonderful to have lots of money, so that you can do all sorts of +things to make them happier and better." + +"Confound the child," thought Donald, although his exasperation was +directed rather at himself, than at her. "It's positively indecent the +way she gets inside one. Judged by the standards of her class, Marion is +a splendid girl--head and shoulders above the average--yet these +unconsciously searching questions of Smiles' are ... Hang it all, I wish +I had had sense enough not to open the subject." + +Aloud he said non-committally, "Yes, of course it is wonderful and I +know that you would do it if you were able." + +"I _shall_ do it," was the confident answer. "I can't give money but I +can give myself." There was a moment of silence; then Rose added softly, +"I guess she loves you a lot, too, you are so good to ... to people, and +do such wonderful things. When do you calculate to get married to her, +Doctor Mac?" + +"Married?" he repeated in a startled voice, "Oh, some day, of course; +but you know how terribly busy I am, and ..." He stopped, visualizing +himself at that moment as he lolled indolently in the doorway of that +mountain cabin, and wondering if the same thought were in her mind as +was in his. At the same time came a welcome interruption in the +appearance of a small child, brown as the proverbial berry, and bearing +in her arms a large and rather dilapidated appearing doll. For an +instant Donald failed to recognize her, and said, "Hello, here comes one +of your little friends to see you, Smiles. Why, I do believe ... yes, +it's Lou. Come along. You're not afraid of the doctor man who sent you +that doll." + +Lou advanced, one finger in her mouth, the corners of which were lifting +in a shy smile. Sensing the approach of another old friend, Mike bounded +out of the doorway where he had lain panting in the shadow, and so +energetic was his greeting that the child was very nearly upset by it, +although as soon as she could regain her equilibrium she flung her +little arms around the roughly coated neck, without a trace of fear. + +"Mike's got er broken leg," she announced. The words gave Donald a start +until he saw that she was holding out to him her doll, one of whose +limbs flapped about in piteous substantiation. "Kin yo' make hit well +ergin?" + +Examining the injured member, whence the sawdust blood had issued +through a deep incision in the cloth, Donald replied seriously, "It will +require a rather serious operation, but I guess that I can mend it with +the assistance of Nurse Smiles. We will have to sew up the wound and put +the leg in splints." + +"Hit haint ergoin' ter hurt her much, air hit?" begged Lou, with all +the solicitude of a young mother. + +"No. We'll give her an anesthetic--something to put her sound +asleep--and I guess that she won't know anything about it." Rose joined +them laughingly, bringing a threaded needle and some bits of cloth for +stuffing and in a few minutes the operation was complete, even to the +application of splints, roughly shaped by Donald's jack-knife. +Throughout the process the physician explained each step to Rose, who +cried as they finished, "Oh, I love to do it. It's lots more fun than +book studying or weaving baskets." + +"Well, we might have a real lesson in 'first aid' this morning, if Lou +can stay and be your little patient. Bring out that roll of bandages +again." + +What a merry hour they spent, helped by Mike, who insisted in doing his +share by licking the patient at every opportunity. The air was so warm +that Lou's little dress could be taken off, and as she giggled or +screamed with merriment, Donald and Rose treated her for every +conceivable fracture, sprain or injury, the former all the while +explaining in the simplest language at his command the major facts of +human anatomy. + +Rose proved to be an astonishingly apt pupil, and after each +demonstration insisted on going through both the procedure and +explanation alone. + +Finally, in the course of demonstrating an unusually intricate piece of +bandaging, Donald put his arms about Smiles, the better to guide her +hands, and impulsively drew her close against him. He could not see her +face, but he perceived that a quick flush mantled her neck and +delicately rounded cheek. She moved away hastily, saying in a low voice, +"I reckon you oughtn't do like that, Doctor Mac." + +"Why, Smiles!" came his response in a hurt tone. + +"I don't mean for to hurt you, and of course I cares for you like I used +to, but I guess it ain't ... isn't ... just right for you to put your +arms around me ... that way now. I'm most grown up now, and ... and ... +you're pledged to ... to some one else." During her speech the color had +flamed brighter and brighter. + +The man was both surprised and chagrined. He realized, of course, that +in many respects Rose was indeed, 'most a woman now'--that she was far +more mature in certain ways than city-bred girls of the same age; for, +while they might be infinitely more sophisticated in worldly ways than +she, they are still children, whereas she had already entered into the +problems of life and for several years had not only been in full charge +of a home, but in intimate touch with the issues of life and death in +the little community. Understanding all this, he nevertheless looked +upon her as a child because of the childlike simplicity which +characterized her still. + +"I see," he answered slowly and a little ashamed, then added lightly, +"but you have apparently forgotten that you adopted me as a +foster-brother this morning." + +For a moment she said nothing; then the old misty smile touched her +lips, and she replied, "I shor' most forgot that, and it makes it all +right. Please, Doctor Mac, don't think that I didn't enjoy for you to do +it." + +There succeeded another brief, awkward silence. Then Smiles slipped her +arm about Donald's neck with frank, childlike affection, and leaned +close to him, her young, warm being thrilling his senses, as he full +well realized Marion's infrequent embraces never had. + +Shocked and distressed by his own emotions, Donald was the first to +withdraw his encircling arm, with an intent to continue the lesson. But +it was ended. + +During the brief interlude Lou had stood regarding the man and girl +uncomprehendingly. Now she piped up, "Smiles loves ye er heap, I reckon, +doctor man, an' so does I. Ef she don't marry with ye, I'll do hit when +I gits bigger." + +"My, but I'm a fortunate man to have _three_ fair ladies love me, and I +won't forget your promise," Donald laughed merrily. + +"But my brother Juddy don't love ye none," said the child, innocently +bringing a cloud over the friendly sunshine in her hearers' hearts. +Donald looked at Rose uneasily as he answered. + +"Oh, I hope he will like me some day. We should be the best of friends, +for we both care for the same two dear girls." + +"Where _is_ Juddy?" came Smiles' somewhat troubled query. + +"Oh, he air away ergin; up in ther mountain." + +The shadow deepened on Rose's face and Donald caught the sound of a +distressed, "Oh." + +"What's the matter?" he asked without special thought. + +"It haint ... it isn't anything ... leastwise it isn't anything that I +can tell you about, doctor Mac. I ... I just don't like for him to go up +there." + +A feeling closely akin to jealousy stirred Donald's heart. Did that +uncouth young mountaineer really mean something to her after all? + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GATHERING CLOUDS + + +Despite Smiles' ingenuous proffer of a sister's affection, Donald was +troubled with an unreasonable dissatisfaction over the course which the +events of the morning had taken, and he knew that it was unreasonable, +which made it worse. Now he suddenly announced that he guessed he would +not wait until the afternoon before going down to Fayville to get his +small amount of baggage. + +The girl was troubled, also, without knowing just why, and she watched +his departure with an unhappy feeling that somehow the changes which the +year had made in both their lives had raised a misty barrier between +them--intangible, but not easily to be swept away. Furthermore, young as +she was, she intuitively sensed that hers was the necessity of +reconstructing their friendship on a new foundation, because she was a +woman. The man could not do it. + +Meanwhile Donald performed his downward journey with none of the +lightness of heart which makes a long walk a pleasure, rather than a +task. Going down the wooded descent, where the dew still lay wet beneath +the heaviest thickets, was not so bad; but, when he had obtained his +grip and gun, and started on the back trail, his discomforts commenced. +As the main street of the little village changed its character, first to +a road and then a cart path through the fields, it grew deep with dust, +and, although no air stirred, it seemed to rise, as water does by +capillary attraction, until his clothing was saturated and his mouth and +nose overlaid with a film of it. Overhead the sky burned, and from the +brown fields, which stretched to the wooded base of the mountain, heat +waves rose as though the dry earth were panting with visible breath. An +insect chirped half-heartedly in the grass, and then left off as though +the effort were too great, and a small striped snake leisurely wove a +sinuous path through the dust ahead of him, and vanished with a faint +hiss. + +It was better when he struck the woods, for there was shade; but the air +was more sultry and the added exertion of climbing started the +perspiration and turned the coating of dust to sticky grime. Still the +breeze delayed, and the fragrant odors of the woods were cloying. His +luggage grew heavier and yet more heavy; his arm and back began to ache +painfully. + +When physical discomfort is accompanied by morose introspection, the +result is certain to be unpleasant, and Donald's thoughts were in dismal +grays and browns, which ill-matched the radiant colors of external +nature. + +Certainly Smiles was not to blame, he thought, as he trudged up and up. +The fact still remained that they lived on utterly different planes, and +that he had not the slightest idea of falling in love with her, or, even +mentally, violating his pledge to Marion. Pshaw, she was nothing but a +child! It was foolish, absurdly so, yet somehow he felt that his world +was out of joint, and, since he could not, or would not, determine just +what the trouble was, he could not take active measures to bring about a +readjustment. + +With a conscious effort of his will he put the mountain child out of his +thoughts, and attempted to analyze his real feelings for the city girl, +to whom he was betrothed. He could assign no reason to the vague, but +persistent, feeling which frequently possessed him, when he was apart +from her, that she was not his natural mate. Her poise and reserve, +which sometimes irritated him, he knew to be really virtues, in a way as +desirable as they were rare in women, even of her class; her unusual +beauty fully satisfied his eye; she was a reigning queen, the desired of +many men and he had won her, although he hesitated a little over the +word "won." Finally, he was certain that she loved him, after her +fashion. Why should he, a man as reserved as he was, and one who had +little time to spend on the romantic embellishments of life, ask for +more? Yet there was mute rebellion in the depths of his heart, and even +the memory of that milestone night, eight months before, when the spirit +of Christmastide had added its spell to the influences of life-long +propinquity, and they had, almost without spoken words, crossed the +border and pledged themselves to one another, brought no thrill. + +"I _know_ that she is a wonderful woman, and a real beauty," mused +Donald, half aloud. "The trouble must be ... yes, _is_, with me. She's +too wonderful for my simple tastes; that's the truth, as I told Ethel. +Oh, well, perhaps I can learn to live up to her ... but I hate this +society stuff." + + * * * * * + +Donald's return to the cabin, weary and uncomfortable in body and mind, +found Big Jerry sitting heavily in a chair, with Smiles hovering about, +and, from the expression on the face of each, he sensed at once that +something was wrong. The old man was saying, somewhat laboriously, "Hit +don't pain me ... much, Rose, gal. Hit haint nothin' ... ter mention. +I'll jest set still hyar erwhile, an' ..." + +As the girl caught sight of Donald's big form in the doorway, her face +brightened momentarily; but it clouded again with swift pain when he +touched his heart with a significant gesture, accompanied by a +questioning look. She nodded, then said aloud, "Here's our Doctor Mac +back ergin, grandpappy. I reckon he kin do somethin' fer ter help ye." + +The newcomer attempted a cheery laugh, and said, "Well, I'm not much +good unless we can turn Time's flight backward, and make him a child +again temporarily. Kiddies are my specialty, you know, and although I've +a few grown-up patients, left over from the time when I took whatever +came, and was thankful, I am killing them off as fast as I can." + +He spoke facetiously, with the design of instilling a lighter element in +the conversation; but, although Jerry smiled wryly, the girl looked so +shocked that Donald hastened to add, "Please don't be alarmed, dear, of +course I didn't mean that literally. And you know that I will do +anything in my power to help. I only wish that I knew more about +troubles affecting the heart," he added. + +"Reckon the doctor down in Fayville hed ought ter say the same thing," +interposed the old man. "I erlows he didn't do me no good, fer I got +better es soon's I quit takin' the stuff he left me." + +"Don't be too hard on him, foster father. After all, what you probably +needed most was to give that big heart of yours a rest, and that is what +did the business then, and will now. Well, I'll look you over anyway. I +guess professional ethics won't be outraged, with the other physician +five steep, uphill miles away." + +While he talked he had been opening his suitcase, and now took out a +compact emergency bag which experience had taught him never to go away +without, and at whose shining, unfamiliar contents Smiles' eyes opened +with fascinated amazement. Taking out a stethoscope, Donald bade the +giant open his soft, homemade shirt, and planted the transmitting disk +against the massive chest, padded with wonderful, bulging muscles. + +"O-ho," he said under his breath, as he finally laid the instrument +aside; for his intently listening ears had caught the faint, but clearly +discernible sound of a systolic murmur, deep within. + +"Air the trouble 'Aunt' ... what the other doctor said hit was?" +questioned Rose. + +"Angina pectoris? He may have had a touch of that last winter of course, +but my guess is that it's something a bit different now." + +"I haint erfeered ter hyar the truth," rumbled Jerry, straightening up +like a soldier before the court martial. + +"Well," answered the doctor, "I should say that you have a touch of +another jaw-breaking Latin phrase, namely, an aneurism of the thoracic +aorta." + +"Hit shor' sounds powerful bad," grunted Jerry. "But then I reckon thet +doctors likes ter use big words." + +"Right. For instance, we prefer to call an old-fashioned cold in the +head, 'Naso-pharyngitis.' The worse it sounds, the more credit we get +for curing it, you see. Well, 'sticks and stones may break our bones, +but _words_ will never hurt us,' so don't let that Latin expression +worry you. Just take things a bit easy, don't overdo physically or get +overexcited, and you'll be good for many a moon yet," he added lightly. + +Jerry fastened up his shirt with big, fumbling fingers and walked slowly +outside, while Rose, tears of pity shedding a misty luminousness over +her eyes, stepped close to Donald and laid her hand appealingly on his +arm, "Is it something pretty bad, Doctor Mac?" she breathed. + +"Well, it's apparently a mild case ... so far." + +"But the trouble ... is it ... is it dangerous?" + +He hesitated an instant, then responded quietly, "Nurses have to know +the truth, of course, and I am sure that you have a brave little heart, +so I'm not afraid to tell you that it _is_ bad. It is almost sure to be +fatal, in time, but not necessarily soon. If he will take things easy, +as I told him to, he'll live for a considerable time yet; but we mustn't +allow him to get very greatly excited, or do any very heavy work." + +Suddenly very white, but calm and tearless, Smiles answered, "I reckon I +can help him better if I know all about it, doctor. I _got_ to help him, +you know. He's all I have now in the whole world." + +"Of course you're going to help him--we both are--but ... you have me, +little sister, and your life work," he answered with awkward tenderness. +"Now let us see if I can make you understand what I believe the trouble +to be. In its incipient--that is, its early stages, it would be rather +hard to tell from angina pectoris, for the symptoms would be much the +same--pain about the heart and shortness of breath. But one can get +over the latter, and feel perfectly well between attacks." + +He picked up from his open suitcase a folded newspaper which he had +tossed in half read, on leaving the city, and drew for her a crude +diagram of the heart and major arteries. + +"This biggest pipe which goes downward from the heart is called the +great artery, and it and its branches--just like a tree's--carry the +blood into all parts of the body, except the lungs. Another name for it +is the descending thoracic aorta, and that is where grandfather's +trouble is. If you knew something about automobile tires I would explain +it by saying that he had a blow-out, but it's something like this. The +pipe has an outer surface and an inner lining. At one time or another +something happened to injure and weaken the former--disease does it +sometimes--perhaps it may have been a severe strain or crushing blow on +his chest." + +"A big tree fell on him early last winter," cried Rose, with sudden +enlightenment. "His chest is so big and strong that he didn't think that +it hurt him, 'cept to lame him considerable." + +"That may have caused the trouble. Well, what happens is this. The blood +is pumped by the heart through that weakened pipe, and, little by +little, it forces the lining out through the weakened spot, making +something like a bubble filled with blood. In time that might grow until +you could actually see the swelling, and all the time, the containing +tissue is getting thinner and thinner. Now you can yourself guess the +reason why he mustn't do anything to over-exert his heart. Hard work, or +great excitement, makes our hearts beat faster, and sends the blood +through that big artery with extra force and ..." + +"The bubble might ... break," whispered "Smiles," with a frightened look +on her young face. + +"Yes. We call it a rupture of the aneurism, and when that happens mortal +life ends." + +"Oh," she shuddered slightly. "I must keep him very quiet, Doctor Mac. I +am strong and can do all the work. You tell him that he mustn't do +anything, please, doctor." + +"I'm not sure that that would be the wisest plan, Rose. He has been so +strong and active all his life it would break his great heart to be tied +down like an invalid. I'm sure that he would be happier doing things, +even if as a result he didn't live quite so long. Don't you think so, +yourself?" + +She nodded, and he continued, "Of course he is so big and strong he can +do common, simple tasks without anything like the amount of exertion +required by an ordinary man, and, so long as he doesn't strain himself, +or get very much excited, we may reasonably expect him to live for a +good while yet. Besides, as the aneurism progresses there will come a +steady, boring pain and increased shortness of breath, which will +themselves help to keep him quiet." + +"But can't I give him some medicine?" + +"The best medicine that he can possibly have will be your happy, +comforting smile and tender love, my child." + +She furtively wiped a stray tear from her cheek and smiled bravely up +into his face, in a wordless pledge that to the administration of this +treatment she would devote herself without stint. + +"May I ... may I have that paper," she answered appealingly, as he +started to crumple it up, preparatory to tossing it into the fireplace. +"We don't often have city papers to read, you know." + +"Why, of course; I didn't think," he answered, smoothing it out and +handing it to her. She took it eagerly, and had read barely a minute +before she cried, delightedly, "Why, Doctor Mac. _You're_ in this paper. +Oh, did you read what it says?" + +"Hang it," thought Donald, "I forgot all about that fool story, or I +wouldn't have given it to her." But she was already reading the brief +article aloud, slowly but with appreciatory expression. + + EXCEPTIONAL FEE PAID BOSTON DOCTOR + + Dr. Donald MacDonald Operates on Multi-Millionaire's Child + + What is rumored to have been one of the biggest fees paid to a + physician in recent years, was received lately by the brilliant + young children's specialist of this city, Dr. Donald MacDonald. + + A few weeks ago he was summoned to Newport in consultation with + local and New York physicians over the five-year-old daughter of J. + Bentley Moors, the millionaire copper king, and finally saved the + child's life by performing successfully one of the most difficult + operations known to surgery--the removal of a brain tumor. + + The child had already totally lost the power of speech, and had + sunk into a comatose state, the operation being performed at Dr. + MacDonald's suggestion as a final desperate resort. + + His associates on the case are unstinted in their praise of his + skill, and declare that few other surgeons in America could have + carried it through with any hope of success. + + The child was completely cured, and in his gratitude her father + sent the young doctor a check which--it is said--represented an + amount larger than many men earn in a lifetime. + +"What does 'comatose' mean, Doctor Mac?" asked Smiles. + +"It means a condition during which the body appears to be lifeless. A +tumor is a growth--in that particular case here, inside the skull, which +pressed on the child's brain, paralyzing, or shutting off, all the +senses." + +"Oh, wasn't it wonderful to do what you did ... it was almost like the +miracles our dear Lord performed, for you gave sight to the blind and +raised up one who was _almost_ dead. I am so glad for that little child +and her dear father, and I don't wonder that he gave you a lot of money. +Was it ... was it as much as a ... a thousand dollars?" she asked in an +awed tone. + +"Yes, indeed, much more than that, in fact." + +"Not five thousand?" + +Donald laughed. "The newspaper men, who had somehow or other got wind of +the story--goodness knows how--tried mighty hard to get me to tell them +how much, but I wouldn't. However, since I know that you can keep a +secret, I will tell you. It was just ten times the amount of your last +guess." + +"Oh!" she gasped, as the result of the multiplication dawned upon her. +"Why, it was a fortune, and ... and _I_ know you." + +"Of course it pleased me," was his answer, "but not half as much as the +result of the operation, dear. If a doctor is really in earnest, and +bound up in his work, he never thinks whether the little sufferer +stretched before him in bed, or on the operating table, has a father +worth a million dollars, or one in the poorhouse. That is the reason why +we have to charge for our services by a different standard from men in +almost any other kind of work. The rich man has to help pay for the poor +man, whether he wants to or not. I meant to charge that very rich man +enough so that I could give myself to a great many poor children without +charging them anything, perhaps; but he had a big heart and sent me that +check for several times what I should have charged without even waiting +for me to make out a bill. And his letter, which came with it, said that +even fifty thousand dollars was poor compensation for a life worth more +to him than all the money in the whole world." + +"A little child's life _is_ more precious than all the gold that ever +was," said Smiles seriously, "for only God can give it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SOWING THE WIND + + +The noonday meal was a rather quiet, constrained affair. None of the +three was in a talkative mood, Donald was still distrait, Big Jerry +obviously in physical and mental distress, and Rose too full of troubled +sympathy for conversation. Frequently Donald caught her gaze fixed on +the old man's face with an expression of unutterable love; and as often, +when she saw him watching her, her face lighted for a moment with a +tender, compassionate smile. + +The eagerly anticipated vacation and reunion had truly begun badly, and +it was with a sense of relief that Donald finished the simple dinner, +and announced that he guessed he would go for a little tramp in the +woods, while Rose was performing her household tasks. + +"Hain't yo' ergoin' ter tote yo'r rifle-gun?" queried Big Jerry, as he +noticed that the doctor was leaving the house without a weapon. + +"No, not this trip. I'm not in a mood for hunting. All I want is a +walk,--and a stout club and Mike will be protection enough against +anything in these woods. Good-by, Smiles. I'll be back before +supper-time, hungry as a bear." + +He left the clearing for the virgin woods at random, striding along +briskly and with rising spirits, and at first unmindful of the direction +that he was taking. + +In fact he had, subconsciously--even in his recreation--refused to +follow the easiest way, and had struck out on the up-mountain trail. + + * * * * * + +For a while Donald walked on, regardless of whither. Then the +consciousness of the fact that he was in a--to him--unknown part of the +mountain, and nearing the summit, brought with it a recollection of the +words spoken that morning by little Lou, "Judd air erway ergin ... up in +the mountain." + +Still, he kept on, for, although he told himself that he had not the +slightest intention of seeking the mountaineer, or the solution of +Smiles' troubled look, and most certainly was not courting trouble, +purposeless curiosity impelled him higher and higher into the hitherto +unexplored fastnesses. Now the timberlands lay beneath him, for, +although the hardy laurel continued in profusion, albeit somewhat dried +and withered, the trees were thinning out and becoming more scraggly, +and more frequently the naked rocks, split and seamed, thrust themselves +up through the baked soil, "like vertebrae in the backbone of the +mountain," thought Donald. Now they were toned and softened by moss and +lichen; now barren of vegetation, rugged and gaunt, split asunder by the +ancient elements. In the distress which had come like a cloud over the +sunlight of his spirits, so gayly anticipative a few hours previous, +they flung a wordless challenge to the battling instinct in the man, and +he accepted it with the thought that the best balm for troubled minds is +strenuous bodily action. + +Eager and joyous over the new game, Mike tore about, panting, and +dashing from side to side through the underbrush on real, or imaginary, +scents, now stopping to dig madly for a moment, then racing on to catch +up with his master, who frequently had to haul him over the precipitous +crags by the shaggy hair on his muscular back. + +The air was cooler here, and as invigorating as wine; the sky was a +transparent blue. + +At last, somewhat tired of pushing his way over rocks and through virgin +underbrush with no objective, he was on the point of turning to retrace +his footsteps, when Mike stopped short with nose a-quiver and bristles +lifting on his neck. + +"What's up?" asked the man. As usual he addressed the dog as though he +were a sentient being. "Trouble ahead? Some wild animal there, old boy?" + +But, instead of retreating, he grasped his cudgel more firmly, and +cautiously parted the thick bushes in front of him. + +To his surprise, Donald found that he was almost on the edge of a sharp +declivity leading down into a natural bowl-like hollow, so shut in with +high rocks and underbrush that it was, in effect, a retreat almost as +good as a cave for concealment. And that it was so used, or had been at +some time, was made evident by the presence of a rude hut, little more +than a lean-to since one end was wholly open, which snuggled against the +further bank. + +With growing curiosity and caution, he worked his way along the edge, +for now a faint odor of wood-smoke reached his nostrils, and there came +to his ears the sound of some one, or something, moving within the +shelter, a presence which the dog had apparently detected much sooner +than had his master. + +At length he reached a point of vantage, partly hidden by a cleft rock, +from which he could look fully into the interior of the shack. It was +obviously not a habitation, although a fire was burning briskly within +it. Near by stood a small keg or two, what appeared to be a large tub or +vat, and, over the fire, was a queer metal object, the shape of which +caused Donald to wonder for a brief instant if necromancy still existed, +and he had stumbled upon the retreat of a mountain wizard. Almost +immediately, however, the true explanation flashed through his mind. + +It was a crude illicit distillery--the hidden "still" of a mountain +moonshiner! At the same moment a tall man in typical mountain costume +moved into view and bent over the fire. + +In his interest Donald had forgotten Mike; but, at the appearance of the +man, his companion gave voice to a sharp and hostile challenge. + +The furtive toiler turned like a flash, and, seizing the rifle which +leaned against the wall near at hand, sprang out and levelled it at the +intruder whose head was visible above the rock, for he had been too much +surprised to move. + +"Put up yo'r hands!" he cried, and Donald complied with the order +without perceptible hesitation, at the same time pushing into full +sight. The man below was Judd! + +For a moment neither spoke, and the silence was pregnant with serious +possibilities. Then Donald regained partial control of his shaken +self-possession, and with his hands still held above his head, slid +awkwardly down into a sitting posture on the edge of the bank. + +"Do you know, Judd," he remarked at last, with an assumption of +coolness. "I thought _that_ sort of thing had ceased to exist, even in +these wild mountains," and he nodded toward the distillery. + +"I allows thet yo' hev er habit of thinkin' wrong," was the surly +response. "You haint no doctor man. Thet's er blind. Yo' be er revenuer, +I reckon, an' es sich I've got ter put er bullet inter ye." + +"Don't be a fool," snapped Donald, even in this dangerous predicament +unable to resort to conciliatory words when addressing Judd. "I'm +nothing of the sort, and you know it." + +There was another spell of nerve-racking silence. Then the outlaw said +slowly, "I reckon yo' speaks ther truth. Yo' haint smart ernough fer er +revenuer. One er them wouldn't come er still-huntin' 'thout er +rifle-gun, an' _with_ er barkin' dawg." + +"Well, I'm glad that's settled," answered Donald, uttering a forced +laugh. "My arms are getting tired, held up like this, and, as you have a +rifle and I haven't, I suggest that I be allowed to resume a more +natural position." + +Without waiting for the permission, he dropped his hands to the bank +beside him. + +Donald's action placed Judd in an obviously unpleasant dilemma. He knew +it, and therein lay the intruder's best chance. + +"I haint never shot er man in cold blood erfore, but I reckon I've got +ter do hit now," he said sullenly. "Yo' know too damned much erbout +sartain things what don't consarn ye." + +"If they don't concern me--as I am willing to admit--why waste a +bullet?" answered Donald, mentally sparring for time. "As a law-abiding +citizen I might reasonably feel that you still ought to be put out of +existence; but, it's no hunt of mine, since I'm not a federal officer. I +haven't any particular desire to get a bullet through me, and I know +perfectly well that you don't care for the thought of adding the crime +of murder to the misdemeanor of illicit liquor making." + +"I haint erfeerd ter shoot ye," blustered Judd, and added significantly, +"Yo're body wouldn't never be found, and yo' wouldn't be ther first +pryin' stranger what got lost in these hyar hills, and warn't never +heard of more." + +"Admitted. But what's to be gained in taking the chance? I'm ready--yes, +anxious--to give you my word of honor that I'll forget what I've +stumbled on here this afternoon. Come, be reasonable, Judd." + +"Wall, ef you'll swa'r thet ..." began the mountaineer dubiously. + +"I do," broke in Donald with undisguised eagerness. "I solemnly swear +never to tell a soul about the existence of this still, so help me God. +There, I hope that satisfies you. You need not be afraid of my not +keeping my oath, but just the same, I think you're a fool to do this. +You're almost sure to be caught at it, sooner or later, and a federal +prison isn't a particularly pleasant place." + +"I don't reckerlect hevin' asked any advice from _yo'_," was Judd's +surly reply. + +"Well, I don't expect that you'll follow it," answered the other, as he +scrambled to his feet. "And since we don't seem to hit it off very well +together, I guess I'll be starting along." + +"No yo' won't ... leastwise not yet!" Judd's words came with crisp +finality, and were reinforced by a quick movement of his rifle to the +hip. "I haint through with ye yet, stranger. Last year I warned ye fair +thet this hyar mountain war an on-healthy place fer ye. 'Pears like yo' +didn't believe hit, but I means thet ye should this time. Erfore yo' +goes I'll hear ernother sworn promise from ye, an' I reckon yo' kin +guess what hit air." + +"I can. And you're not going to get it. No, by God, not if you put a +coward's bullet into me for refusing," burst out Donald, with his +pent-up anger breaking its bounds at the other's dictatorial demands. "I +agreed that what you did with your time wasn't my business, but what I +do with mine, is. And I don't take orders from you in the matter, +understand?" + +The mountaineer's lips drew back, his body quivered, and the finger on +the rifle's trigger trembled. + +Above him, Donald stood equally tense and pale. He felt that he should +be praying as he had never prayed before, but wrath possessed his spirit +wholly, and his mind was completely concentrated on that lean +forefinger, whose slightest tension meant death. Moments like these come +but once in the lifetime of the average man, if, indeed, they ever come +at all; but, when they do, when he suddenly finds himself face to face +with some cataclysmic upheaval in human or external nature that +threatens to rend the thin but impenetrable curtain which separates him +from eternity, the salient characteristic of his being is unmasked and +stands forth, naked. If he be at heart a coward, even though he may +honestly never have suspected himself of cowardice, he will try to flee, +or cringe and grovel for mercy; if his soul is stayed upon the immortal +and everlasting truths, he will face what Fate may hold with the +resigned fortitude which was the martyrs'; but, if he is merely a man, +strong with the courage of the beast, refined and strengthened in the +fires of intellect, he will be more likely to stand his ground +unflinchingly and cast his defiance in the teeth of the danger which +threatens, wrathful, but unafraid. + +Donald was of the latter breed. He made no move; but the cords and veins +in his muscular neck and hands swelled visibly, and his dark gray eyes +took on a steely glint, as they bored steadily into Judd's glowering +black ones. + +Suddenly, with a deep oath, the mountaineer dropped the butt of his gun +to the ground. Both men breathed a deep sigh, and the latter said: "No, +I kaint shoot an unarmed man, even ef he _air_ a skunk. But hark ye. I +warns ye now fer the last time. Clar out uv this hyar mountain terday, +er go armed an' ready, fer, by Gawd A'mighty, I aims ter shoot ye dead +the next time I meets ye. Hit's yo' er me now." + +When the other dropped his weapon, Donald had almost decided to make an +attempt to clear the atmosphere by telling him again that his suspicions +were utterly groundless and that, so far from having any intention of +stealing the affections of the mountain child whom Judd loved, he was +betrothed to another. But, at the challenge to fight, something, which +he could neither explain afterwards nor control then, swept away the +half-formed resolve, and the heat of primal hate sent a burning flush +through him and drove cool reason utterly from its throne. + +"If you didn't have that gun, you damned coward, I'd come down there +this instant, and thrash you within an inch of your worthless life," he +shouted, heedless of consequences; too angry to care what might happen. +And simultaneously, spurred on by his own blind passion, he slid down +the bank and, with fists clenched, advanced on Judd. A yard ahead of him +bristled Mike, a canine fury with gleaming teeth bared and muscles +tensed for a spring. His master's quarrel was his also. + +"Call off thet damned dawg, ef yo' don't want fer him ter git shot," +raged the other, white with anger. "I reckon thet the time _hes_ come +fer me ter teach ye a lesson; p'raps then a rifle bullet won't be nowise +necessary. Yo' tie up thet devil, an' I'll hev it out with ye, now." +Wrath robbed him, too, of all caution and he flung his gun far to one +side as Donald, with hands that trembled so violently that he could +barely tie the knots, slipped his handkerchief through Mike's collar and +fastened him securely to a stout bush. Then he faced the infuriated +mountaineer. + +"Hit's yo' er me," panted the latter, assuming a pantherlike crouch. + +"Let it go at that," answered the city man, dropping naturally into a +fighting position. + +The veneer of our vaunted civilization is, at the best, thin, and every +man, in whose veins runs red blood, has within him pent-up volcanic +forces which require but little awakening to produce a soul-shattering +upheaval. Donald knew that his being shouted aloud for battle--why, he +didn't pause to analyze. Judd knew full well what _he_ was fighting +for. It was the woman whom his heart had claimed as his mate, regardless +of what his chances of winning her were. + +In college days, Donald had been a trained athlete, and he was still +exceptionally powerful, although city life and his confining work had +robbed his muscles of some of the flexibility and strength which had +once been theirs, and were now possessed by those of his opponent. In +weight, and knowledge of the science of boxing, he far surpassed Judd; +but these odds were evened by the fact that _his_ mind--thoroughly +aroused though it was--held only a desire to punish the other severely, +whereas Judd's passion burned deeper; blood-lust was in his heart and he +saw red. Nothing would satisfy him short of killing the man who seemed +to be the personification of his failure to win Smiles. + +The mountaineer opened the fight with a furious rush. Donald +instinctively side-stepped, and met it with a jolting short-arm blow to +the other's lean jaw, which sent the aggressor to the ground. + +Like a flash he was up again, wild to close with his rival and get his +fingers about his throat. There, in the little natural amphitheatre, +with only the ancient trees as silent witnesses, was staged again the +oft-fought fight between the boxer and the battler, but the decision was +not to rest on points. No Marquis of Queensberry rules governed, no +watchful referee was present to disqualify one or the other for unfair +tactics. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +REAPING THE WHIRLWIND + + +It was not long before Donald realized that, whatever had been Judd's +primary purpose, he was now fighting to kill, and he sought desperately +to drive home a blow which would knock him out. But, with all his +greater skill, it was not easily to be accomplished. The mountaineer was +tough, agile and actuated by a rage which mere punishment only +increased. And punishment he took aplenty; while Donald remained almost +unscathed, as he met rush after rush, and a storm of wildly flailing +blows, with an unbroken defence. + +Nor was it long before the other realized that absolute necessity called +for him to break through that guard, and clinch with his opponent, if he +were to hope to be successful in carrying out his design. Gathering his +physical forces for a final desperate assault--which right and left hand +blows on his already battered, bleeding face could not check--he broke +through Donald's defence, and flung his sinewy arms about his rival. + +For a moment both men clung desperately to one another, their breath +coming in labored gasps. + +Then, suddenly, the mountaineer twisted his leg about one of Donald's, +catching him off his guard, and they went heavily to the ground +together. + +Whatever had been the city man's advantage when they were on their feet, +he shortly discovered that the woodman's great agility and crude skill +in wrestling gave him the upper hand in this more primitive method of +combat. Over and over they rolled, gasping for breath, and, although +Donald exerted his great, but now rapidly failing, strength, more than +once he felt the clutch of the other's lean, powerful fingers gripping +his throat and shutting off his breath, before he could tear them free. + +The end came suddenly. + +During a deadly grapple--with first one man, then the other, on +top--Donald called into play the last of his nervous reserve force, and, +with a mighty effort, broke free, and flung Judd face downward on the +ground. The latter's right arm was extended, and, grasping the sweaty +wrist, he drew it up and back, at the same instant crowding his knee +into the spine of the prostrate man. + +Judd cursed and wriggled frantically; but only succeeded in grinding his +battered face into the torn turf. It was some seconds before the +conqueror could gain breath enough to speak. At last he panted out, "Now +I've got you. If you move I'll dislocate your shoulder like _this_!" An +involuntary shriek of agony was wrung from the defeated man's bleeding +lips. + +"I'll let you up when ..." + +"Oh, ooooh!" came a startled, terrified cry from above him. Donald +lifted his eyes, and saw Rose standing on the bank where he had stood. + +For an instant he remained as though turned to stone, staring at the +girl with growing dismay. Finally he got slowly to his feet, +instinctively gave partial aid to Judd as he too struggled up, his +burning eyes also fixed on Smiles. It seemed as though the two +dishevelled, dirt-covered and bleeding men typified the brute in nature, +and stood arraigned there before the spirit of divine justice, for the +slender girl's white dress, and no less white face, against the +background of dark green, made her appear almost like an ethereal being. + +Her breast was rising and falling rapidly as was indicated by the +palpitating movement of her hand pressed close against it; her lips were +parted and her large, shadowy eyes filled with uncomprehending fear and +pain. + +"What ... what do hit mean?" she whispered. + +As Judd made no answer Donald finally succeeded in summoning up an +unnatural laugh and lied reassuringly, "It ... it isn't anything +serious, Smiles. Judd and I got into a dispute over ... over which was +the better wrestler, and I have been showing him a few city tricks." + +"Thet air a lie!" The mountaineer's words lashed out like a physical +blow, and the crimson flamed into the other's cheeks--and those of +Smiles as well. + +"Hit air er lie," he repeated with a rasping voice, as he dashed the +blood and dirt from his lips. "We war fightin' ter kill, an' I reckon +yo' kin guess what hit war erbout," he added, flinging the last words up +at the girl. + +Once again Donald attempted to save her still greater distress by a +white lie. "I chanced to stumble on his hidden still, Smiles, and he +thought that I would betray him." + +"Oh, Juddy," cried the girl wringing her hands, "I've been erfeerin' +this. In course I knowed erbout hit, fer yo' showed me the still +yerself, but I've been worryin', and hit war ter warn ye ... ter beg ye +ter quit fer leetle Lou's sake erfore hit war too late thet I came. Yo' +must quit, oh _please_, Judd." In her eagerness she ran down the bank +and toward him. "_I_ knows thet Doctor Mac wouldn't tell, but hit's a +warnin'." + +As though hypnotized, Judd gazed into her pleading face, with his +passion for her overwhelming that other one, which had so short a time +before swayed him. He stepped to meet her with a gesture of +hopelessness, and, realizing that he was for the moment forgotten, +Donald moved softly to the mountaineer's rifle, ejected the cartridges +from the magazine and pocketed them unobserved. + +"I _kaint_ quit, Rose," answered Judd, looking into her face with a +hungry expression. "I kaint stop. Hit's my work, an' hit pays better +then ever hit done. I wants ter make money ... fer yo'. Besides, ef hit +hadn't ha' been fer the white liquor what I sell ter the storeman down +in Fayville, I wouldn't have been able ter sell yo'r baskets for ye. I +wouldn't hev had no money ter give ..." + +He checked his impetuous, unconsidered words too late. The girl's quick +mind delved into his unspoken thought. She started and stepped back, +crying, "'To give?' Judd Amos, war hit yo' thet paid me ther extry price +on them baskets?" + +Confused and distressed, the other remained silent until she repeated +her question insistently. Then he answered pleadingly, "I loves ye, +Smiles. Yo' know hit, an' so does _he_. I wanted ter holp ye, an' 'twar +ther only way." + +Even while Donald--rejoicing in the opportunity to regain his +self-possession--had stood apart from the other two, none of the +conversation had escaped him. With his wrath now fanned to flame afresh +by Judd's apparent falsehood, he, too, burst into hot words without +pausing to consider the effect of them on the girl, "What? You dare +attempt to curry favor with her by lyingly claiming credit for the +additional money her work brought, you cur? You didn't know that I held +the cards to call that outrageous bluff, too, did you? You didn't know +that I bought every one of those baskets, and told the storekeeper what +price to pay for them, did you?" + +No sooner had the anger-impelled words left his lips than Donald felt +heartily ashamed of himself, and wished that he might unsay them. Half +afraid, he turned his eyes toward the girl to find his fears realized. +Her eyes were flaming from her deathly white face, and a mingled look +of hurt pride and bitter scorn struggled for supremacy on her lips. + +"Yo' ... yo' think I would accept yo'r charity?" she cried. "Yo' think I +would take money gifts from any man? I allows ter pay ye both every cent +uv thet money; and I hates ye ... I hates ye both." + +For an instant she stood trembling with anger and mortification, then +turned and sped up the bank and away into the woods. + +Judd sank down with a muffled groan, but Donald, shocked at the result +of his ill-advised and hasty words, forgot his late adversary and sprang +in pursuit, crying, "Smiles. Dear child, wait. I want to talk with you, +to explain...." + +He ran over rock and crag blunderingly into the forest in the direction +she had taken, and, as he disappeared, Mike, who, during the combat, had +continually raged at his leash in futile frenzy, made a last desperate +effort, snapped the leather collar, although the effort drew a yelp of +pain from him, and tore after him. + +He passed his master and overtook the fleeing girl, sagaciously sensing +the situation; but, as she paid no heed to his appealing barks and tugs +at her skirt, but merely ran the faster, he turned back to await his +lord. Body-weary and discomforted, Donald likewise gave up the chase as +the sound of Smiles' flight grew more distant and died away. + +Eventually she too dropped into a walk, and finally stopped altogether, +with a deep, gasping sob. Throwing herself down at the foot of an +ancient tree, she pressed her flushed face hard against the rough bark, +her mind in a wretched turmoil. + +For the first time in Smiles' young life her eyes had been opened, and +she had looked upon the brute passions of men, had tasted the bitter +gall of trust abused, had felt an anger which brought with it the desire +to hurt another as she herself had been hurt. + +Stabbed to the quick of her soul, she lay on the moss-bedded roots of +the impassive tree, her body quivering with soundless, shuddering sobs. + +She hated herself, the two men--and Judd less than Donald, for she had +known and excused his shortcomings, while in her childish eyes Dr. +MacDonald had been all that was noble, a super-man, an idol whose feet +were now clay. She hated the world where such things were possible. + +For a long time Rose lay as she had fallen, hardly moving, and +when--pale and dry-eyed--she did arise to return to the cabin through +the twilight shadows, something beautiful, but indefinable, which had +gone to make up the fresh, childlike charm of her face, had vanished. + +Meanwhile, Donald walked heavily on with bowed head, heedless of the +direction he took. The sound of rushing waters finally struck upon his +ear, and his heated, dirt-covered body turned instinctively in their +direction. A few minutes brought him to the river at a point where it +tore through a narrow ravine of rock, in dashing cataract and noisy +rapid. Donald, with increasing lameness, made his way painfully along +the craggy bank until it descended to the river's edge, and, kneeling +beside the leaping waters, he plunged his bruised, aching hands and face +into them gratefully. + +As he stood up again at last, his ears caught faintly above the river's +tumult the distant crack of a rifle, followed immediately by another +sound nearer at hand on the bank above him. + +It was the agonized yelp of pain from a dog. Donald sprang erect, his +heart seeming to lift with a convulsive action, and crowd his throat. He +well knew that canine cry, now filled with mortal agony. + +Almost blind with reborn rage and fear, Donald sprang up the steep bank, +scrambling, stumbling, heedless of boughs which lashed across his face, +and rocks which bruised his legs. He reached the top, and, parting the +bushes, found what he had sought--and feared to find. On the stubbly +grass lay little Mike, whining and biting at a spot on his side where +the tawny hair was already matted and dark with flowing blood. + +Made speechless by the clutching pressure in his throat, and suddenly +dizzy from a mist which rose before his eyes, the man bent and lifted +the panting animal--his bosom friend and faithful companion through many +days and nights--in his trembling arms. + +Mike painfully turned his head and licked his master's drawn face. The +next instant came the sound of crashing underbrush, and, through +vistas, Donald saw a man approaching them on a lumbering run. It was Big +Jerry. His beard and clothing were dishevelled, and, as he drew near, +his deep, gasping breaths became audible. From his ghastly gray and +working face his deep eyes looked forth with an expression which spelt +pain of body and wrack of mind. + +Donald stood up, with the dog clasped to his breast, and a terrible +expression on his countenance. + +"Mike ... my friend ... shot ... he is dying," came his words, in an +unnatural voice. "God have mercy on the man who did it. I shall not!" + +The giant's frame seemed to collapse visibly; two big tears started from +his eyes and ran down the furrows of his cheeks as he moved closer and +laid his big, shaking hand on the dog's head. + +"_I_ done hit," he answered dully. + +Mike licked the wrinkled hand which moved in slow caress over his jaws. + +"You?" whispered Donald in amazed unbelief. + +"Gawd help me, yes. I shot him ... I wish hit hed er been myself," +returned the old man, between breaths which came in deep, body-shaking +gasps. + +Slowly the doctor bent, laid his chum back on the ground, and knelt +beside him until the fast glazing eyes--which never wavered from +his--closed forever, and the pain-tortured little body lay still. Big +Jerry, too, sank down and dropped his massive head onto his hands, +while his frame rose and fell with convulsive heaving. + +"Hit war this erway," he began to speak at last, and told his story in +broken, laboring sentences. "I war erhuntin' with ... with yo'r +rifle-gun in the woods thar beyond ther ravine. Jest es I war startin' +fer the cabin, I seen ... I seen a man erstandin' hyar on the bank, er +peerin' down towards the river, thar. I looked whar he war erlookin', +an' seen ye down thar, bathin' yo'r face in ther water. The man war +ertotin' a rifle-gun, an' uv a sudden he drapped ter his knee an' raised +hit, an' I knowed he war kalkerlatin' ter shoot ye. + +"I tried fer ter shout, ter cry out a warnin' ter ye, but my voice hed +somehow lost hits power, an' wouldn't kerry above the noise of the +falls. Thar war but one thing fer ter do, an' hit called fer powerful +quick action. + +"Yo' war my foster-son, an' ef 'twar yo'r life er his'n I allowed I +knowed whar my duty lay. But I didn't aim fer ter kill him.... I wish +ter Gawd I hed. 'Taint boastin' none fer me ter say ter ye thet I aimed +only fer ter shoot the arm what war holdin' the gun. + +"In course hit takes time fer ter tell ye all this, but I acted like I +thought. Then ..." he paused, and went on only with a supreme effort, +"then, jest as I started the trigger-pull, I seen ... I seen leetle Mike +spring out o' the bushes straight at ... at the man. I _seen_ him, I +tells ye, erfore I fired. My mind told me not ter pull thet trigger, +an' ... an' I done hit. My aim war true, but ..." he stopped altogether. + +"The man," asked Donald at length, through clenched teeth. "What +happened to him?" + +"He turned et the crack of my gun. He ... he seen me, and run off inter +the wood thar." + +There ensued a long silence. Then Donald's hand stretched out and +grasped that of the sorrowing giant. + +"Jerry," he said steadily. "Don't feel so bad, it wasn't your fault. You +did all that man could do. You were trying to ... to save my life, just +as ... as Mike was, God bless the little dog. He must have realized that +Judd was following me by the exercise of a sense beyond our knowledge, +and rushed back to attack him--for my sake." + +"Yo' said ... yo' said ... 'Judd.' How did yo' come ter know 'twar him?" + +With new and deepened remorse, Donald sadly outlined the chief incidents +of the quarrel, without, however, mentioning the discovery of the still, +or the immediate cause of the combat. + +"Gawd help us all ef er new feud hes broken out hyar," said Jerry +solemnly, as he finished. "But yo' air my friend, enjyin' ther +hospitality of my roof, an' from this day Judd Amos air my mortal enemy, +even though he be my next neighbor." + +Donald sadly removed his coat, and, wrapping it around the body of his +chum, arose, and the silent, painful journey home was begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE AFTERMATH + + +Supper was over. With kindly hands night had laid her deep purple mantle +over the new-made mound back of the cabin, hiding it from the grieving +gaze of the three who sat before the door in painful silence beneath the +star-pierced dome of heaven. In the poignancy of her own sorrow, and her +overwhelming sympathy for Donald, when she had come to a realization of +the meaning of the bundle which he brought out of the woods and laid so +tenderly down on the grass before the cabin's stoop, every vestige of +Smiles' anger had instantly vanished. + +"Oh, the pity, the uselessness of it," cried Donald's heart, as his +thoughts again and again turned back to the tragic series of events +which had made the afternoon a thing of horror. The bitter +culmination,--the death of Mike, poor, courageous, self-sacrificing +little Mike--was the most needless of all, for, although he had not +mentioned the fact to Big Jerry, Donald knew that in all human +probability Judd's rifle was empty of cartridges. And, although Jerry +himself uttered no word of complaint, the physician knew, only too well, +that the gripping excitement, against which he had warned the old man +only a few hours earlier, had brought its inevitable aftermath. The +giant's breath came with labored, audible gasps, and his very appearance +told the story of the increased pain within his breast. For these +disasters--as well as the mortal enmity of the young mountaineer and the +heart-ache of the innocent girl--he, and he alone, was to blame. Donald +groaned under his breath. + +The silence was finally ended by Smiles crying out bitterly, "Oh, Doctor +Mac, I can't understand why grandfather pulled that trigger, and shot +dear little Mike. He saw him spring at Judd." + +"It wasn't in any wise his fault, dear heart. He could not possibly have +helped it. You see our brains are telegraph stations from which the +nerves run like wires, carrying messages to all the different parts of +our bodies. Big Jerry had sent a command to his finger, ordering it to +pull the trigger, and the muscles had started to obey. The second +message countermanding the first--quick as it was--came too late to halt +the purely muscular action; that is all." + +"Another good evening, my friends," came a cheery voice, and the +mountain minister approached out of the shadows, and joined them. "I am +just back from a journey into the wilderness, like John the Baptist's, +and ... Why, what's wrong? Do I see the ghost of a sorrow sitting amid +this group, which should be so happy?" + +"Oh, Mr. Talmadge," cried Rose, jumping up and stepping to his side as +he paused. "Many ghosts are here to-night. I think that you took God +away with you on your journey, for His spirit has not been in Webb's Gap +this afternoon." + +"Tell me, what has happened, my dear?" he answered quietly, as he seated +himself within the circle. + +Then, step by step, the whole unhappy story was haltingly poured into +his ears, save only that Smiles consciously refrained from mentioning +the cause which Judd had--by implication--given for the quarrel and +Donald kept his promise and made no allusion to his finding of the +still. Since the minister asked no questions and made no comment +concerning the cause, it is fair to assume that he guessed the truth and +wisely held his own counsel. When he had brought the patchwork recital +to an end, the doctor laughed with a bitter note. + +"You see how much good the brief glimpse which I had last night of the +eternal light did me! Before one full day has elapsed, I sound a lower +depth in primitive, brutal passion then I ever had before in my life. I +am sick at heart when I think how quickly and easily I could forget +everything which goes to make up civilization. There was no excuse for +it--that's the worst part. I was infinitely more to blame than Judd, +even leaving out of consideration the fact that a greater degree of +self-restraint and forbearance should reasonably have been expected of +me, a city-bred man, than of him, a more primitive son of the hills." + +Donald placed his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands +with a stifled sound, which might have been groan or curse, and very +gently Smiles' hand stole up in the darkness and stroked his tumbled +hair, until the man's own fumblingly sought and held it close, to find +mute comfort in her warm clasp. + +"Perhaps I understand better than you think the reasons which underlie +these most unhappy events," answered the old man slowly. There was no +rebuke in his quiet voice. + +"Although it is true, doctor, that the deeper we get into the heart of +primal nature, the closer we get to the heart of nature's God, it is +equally true that the nearer we also get to the primal in man. + +"I cannot help feeling that the city's laws and conventions trammel the +spirit in its free exercise of self, which is ill; but yet the inbred +realization of those very laws and conventions, and the fear of +consequences if they are broken, act as a salutary check on the +primitive passions inherited by every one of us from our savage +ancestors. + +"Of course, I know that, in places where men are crowded together, such +man-made laws and conventions are wise and necessary; but the life which +results is not--cannot be--full and natural as it may be in an isolated +place like this, when honest obedience is paid to the still higher laws +of God--and it is for _that_ obedience which all of us must strive +constantly. + +"You failed in the test to-day; but, believe me, there are many in +these mountains who, lacking all the advantages of training and +education which are yours, meet it. Their lives are lived under nature's +higher laws in perfect sincerity, and, although they might not conform +to the standards of so-called civilization, they are surely purer in +God's sight than those of millions who pattern theirs by printed +precept." + +"I reckon," murmured Smiles, "that St. Peter had to put many black marks +on three books to-day ... yes, mine too, for I was wickedly angry. It +was hate that made me run away from Doctor Mac, and if I hadn't done it, +M ... M ... Mike wouldn't have been shot." She leaned her head against +Donald's arm, and cried softly. + +"'The wages of sin is death,'" said the minister. "And he paid the +penalty for you, Dr. MacDonald, sacrificing himself because of his great +love. Poor little Mike. Such faithful animals as he must have souls, and +his is now in its own paradise." + +No one spoke for a little, and then Mr. Talmadge continued to muse +aloud. + +"Mere repentance, such as the doctor now feels, is not enough. You +remember the parable of the woman who drove the evil spirit from her +fleshly temple, and swept it clean, but failed to fill its place with +another guest, and seven other devils came and repossessed it? So it is +always with human life, Dr. MacDonald. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so +does the spirit. If a man does not fill his soul--swept free of past +evil by repentance--with that which is actively good, the repentance is +of little avail." + +"Yes, yes, I can readily understand that, for it has a parallel in +bodily illness," answered Donald, somewhat impatiently. "We all know +that, when the sick physical being is freed of its disease, it is left +weak and an easy prey for new troubles. We can bring back to it the +strength to resist by giving nerve-and tissue-building food and tonics, +but how is the spirit to be ..." + +"How persistently the earth-man kicks against the pricks," cried Mr. +Talmadge. "Child, your friend will not lift his eyes from the maze of +doubt. You pledged yourself to help him. Help him now." + +Her face suddenly glowing with light, Rose turned to Donald eagerly, and +said without hesitation, "Oh, Doctor Mac, don't you see? The answer is +so clear, so simple that even I know it. The dear God spirit is +everywhere, just waiting for you to call it to your aid. Please pray to +Him to give you new strength so that you may not be weak again, and I +will pray, too." + +"Yes," supplemented the minister, "'Whence cometh my help? My help +cometh even from the Lord, which hath made heaven and earth.'" + +Donald was strongly moved at the eager interest in him which these two +displayed. Shifting uncomfortably he replied, "I need His help, I know; +but ... but I guess I have forgotten how to pray for it." + +"Open your heart with sincerity, and He will enter and bestow the +strength you need in order to take up your task anew, and carry on until +your purpose here on earth has been accomplished. That is all that +prayer need be, for He is ever more ready to give than we to receive. +Verbal petitions are vain and empty things; honest communion with Him +_is_ prayer." + +He arose, content to say no more, and to leave the sorely troubled +spirit of the stranger to Smiles' tender ministrations. "I am deeply +sorry for you in your distress, Dr. MacDonald, but although there is +small comfort in the remark, I cannot help but feel that what has +happened was ordained to complete your lesson, so that you may leave +these hills with a new understanding and higher purpose in life. Good +night, and God be with you all." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PARTING PLEDGE AND PASSING DAYS + + +"Doctor Mac," began Smiles timidly, at length. "I'm sorry for what I +said to you this afternoon, and I want to take it back. I guess when +you're angry you don't see things as they are, and I'm sure that you +were only being very, very kind to me when you ... you bought those +baskets. I love you for it, really I do, and if ... if you want me to +keep the money, and it would hurt your feelings if I...." + +"Of course I want you to keep it, dear. Yesterday you took me for a +foster-brother, and I hope that you will always let me do for you as I +would for a real flesh-and-blood sister." + +"I promise, and I will always do the same for you if I can, dear Don," +she whispered softly, adding, "but somehow to-night--oh please don't +laugh at me now--somehow to-night I feel more like ... like a mother, +than a sister to you." + +"And I truly think you are--a spiritual mother, little woman. I need you +much more than you need me, I guess." + +"Do you know," he went on, after a moment, "I am beginning to believe +that I was wrong this afternoon when I said that ... that Judd lied +about adding to the money he received for your baskets. Of course I +have no way of making sure, unless you have kept accounts, but I +actually begin to think that he did." + +"I _know_ it," she replied promptly; but with a troubled voice. "Judd +has been very wicked, but he doesn't lie. I think that he meant it the +way ... the way you did, too; but he's different and I mean to give it +all back to him." There was another pause, and then Smiles said gently, +"Donald, it makes my heart ache like, to tell you this, but I've got to +now. I want that you should go away early to-morrow morning." + +"What?" he burst out angrily, springing to his feet. "And have him +believe that I ran away from him again? No, how can you ask it, Rose?" + +"It isn't that. We know, and _he_ knows now, that you're not afraid of +him. But this mountain is his home, and, if you stay here, there is sure +to be more trouble, and I couldn't bear that, Don. Even if one of you +wasn't ... wasn't hurt in the body, wicked thoughts would hurt your +souls. I know it is so, and you _must_ go ... but, oh, how I am going to +miss you." + +For a moment Donald stood tense; then his body relaxed weakly and he +answered, "Yes, you are right, Smiles. It _is_ up to me to go; but I +know that some day these clouds are going to be lifted somehow, and we +shall see each other again and be happy together." + +"I know it, too," she answered, with a sob catching her breath. As she +spoke, the clouds, which had been covering the moon for some time, +broke, letting the cool, white light flood the mountain side like a +promise, and her face lit up with the old wondrous smile. "Of course we +will," she cried. "Why, I mean to be your own special nurse some day, +and help you always. Good-night, dear Don." + +She turned and ran quickly into the cabin, so that he should not see the +tears which followed the smile. + +"Rose war right erbout yo'r goin',--I reckon she air allus right," came +Big Jerry's voice. "Yo' hev got ter go; but I'm ergoin' ter miss ye +powerful, likewise, lad." + +"But I'll see you again, too, before long. I've got some of my sense +back, and I mean to write Judd that I am engaged to a girl in the +city--not that I want his friendship after what has happened, +however--and I will be down here again, for a few days at least, when +the atmosphere has cleared--perhaps early this winter." + +"Taint likely yo'll ever see me ergin on earth, son," Jerry said +heavily. "Reckon I'm most done fer." + +"Your heart? Is it very bad?" queried Donald. + +"I allows hit's nigh ter bustin'," was the steady response. "But mebbe +I'll last some while yet--I hopes so, fer leetle Smiles' sake. I haint +blind ter what hes happened, an' I knows thet the time air comin' when +she's es plumb sartain ter fly erway from this hyar mountain es a +homein' dove; fer she hes heard the call uv her city blood, an' hit +haint ter be denied. But I reckon she haint ready ter leave the old nest +yet, so I aims ter stay on erwhile longer ... fer her, though hit haint +goin' ter be in no wise easy fer ter do." + +The younger man knew not what answer to make to this affecting +declaration; but the necessity of a reply was forestalled, for Big Jerry +stepped closer and continued earnestly, "Since yo' wished fer ter be a +son ter me, I air ergoin' ter treat ye es sich, an' tell ye something +thet I've done fer the leetle gal, an' thet she don't yet know erbout. + +"Back in the spring when I seen thet her mind war made up ter be a +nurse, an' I knowed thet my own time war comin', I sold the timber +rights ter these hyar woods ter a city lumber company fer a thousand +dollars. They haint ergoin' ter cut fer some years yet, an' by thet time +I won't be hyar ter grieve, an' Smiles won't neither. + +"Thet money, an' a leetle more what I hev saved, air ter be hern ... +hit's in er savin' bank down ter the city now. But thet haint all I +wants ye ter know. The reverend drawed a last will an' testiment fer me, +leavin' this hyar land ter her--she haint blood kin of mine, yo' know, +nor adopted by law-an' I reckons hit will be val'able some day, fer a +city stranger told me oncet thet thar's coal on hit. So my leetle gal +haint ergoin' ter start her new life penniless, an' ... an' now I wants +ter name ye ter be her guardeen till she air growed up. I hopes yo'll +accept ther charge, fer I trusts ye, son." + +"Accept? Indeed I will, and it makes me mighty happy to realize that I +mean something to both of you. I've been playing that she was my sister, +but now she will really be as much to me as though she were." + +The two men clasped hands again in full understanding, and as a symbol +of a trust bestowed and accepted. + + * * * * * + +At sunrise the following morning Donald once more turned his face toward +the valley, whence he had climbed lightheartedly less than two days +previous. He had come with a beloved companion. He went alone, save for +crowding memories--some bright, but far more black as storm-clouds and +shot with malignant flashes of lightning. + +His vacation--a travesty on the name--was ended; the castle which his +dreams had built on this remote mountain was a shattered ruin. Yet, +through the dark series of crowding events, ran a fine thread of +gleaming gold, and Donald felt that it had not been broken by his +departure. No, it was spun by Destiny to stretch on and on into the +unseen future, at once for him a guide-line to a higher manhood, and a +tie binding his life to that of the girl whose pathway--starting so far +removed from his--had so strangely converged with it. + +To continue his hunting trip in another location, with Mike no longer +his companion in it, was unthinkable. The empty spaces made the void in +his heart unbearable, and he at once returned to Boston and joined his +family at their summer home, to their amazement and delight. + +But the man now returned to them after little more than a week's absence +was vastly different from the one who had left. All marked the +alteration in him, and over and over in family council tried, vainly, to +account for it, for Donald had withheld far more than he told of his +experiences, and minimized what he did tell. + +But he knew, as well as they, that a new chord had been struck within +him, and by its vibrations his whole life was being tuned anew. +Something of the old boyishness and impetuosity was gone, a new +purposefulness--not of the will but rather of the spirit--had supplanted +it and engendered an unwonted serenity. Was it born of the words of the +strange mountain prophet, or the impelling appeal of the no-less-strange +mountain child, whose mysterious smile, though seen less frequently than +on his first visit, still cast a spell over his senses, even in memory? +He could not say. + +Whatever uncertainties had disturbed his heart before, when his thoughts +had turned upon her, none now remained. The die was cast. Smiles had +made her place in his life, and would always occupy it, but merely as a +dear charge and comrade. Half-child, half-woman, she still appealed to +him in both capacities as perhaps none other ever had; yet he could now +admit that fact frankly, and at the same time tell himself that there +was, there could be, nothing else. + +With the mists of uncertainty dispelled, and his mind purged of the +passions which had, so unexpectedly, possessed it, Donald's life +returned to its old ruts. His work absorbed him as before, he accepted +Marion as more fully a part of his life than she had previously been, +and, in so doing, found an unexpected contentment. If, at times, he +still felt that she was not all that he might desire, at least she was +of his class and he understood her thoroughly. + +"My work furnishes enough of romance for me," he sometimes thought. +"And, if I want to remain a civilized human being, I had better stick to +the life in which I was brought up. I never suspected how much of a +'cave man' I was until I got into the heart of the primitive. Whew! +Supposing I had killed Judd that afternoon! There were a few moments +when it would have been a pleasure to have done it. Or supposing he had +killed me! He wanted to, right enough. Puck was right." + +And so, while the months passed, Fortune smiled on the brilliant young +physician, and daily laid new tributes of wealth, honor and affection at +his feet. + + * * * * * + +In the mountain cabin it was otherwise. + +Changes, born of the travail of tragic happenings, cast their +ever-lengthening shadows over Smiles' life, blotting out the golden +sunlight of childhood, and overlaying it with the deeper tones of +womanhood. + +Judd, her companion since baby days, she no longer called "friend," and +he, for his part, steadily avoided her and the cabin which had once been +a second home to him. Big Jerry, uncomplaining ever, day by day grew +more feeble and pain-wracked, and so became more and more a dear burden +to her. Only Mr. Talmadge, of her real intimates, remained unchanged in +his relations with her, unless it was that in his deep and understanding +sympathy he brought her greater spiritual and mental comfort than ever. +The other neighbors were kind always, in their rough, well-meaning way; +but he was her chief guide and comforter, and in him, and the books +which Donald conscientiously sent to her every few weeks, she found the +strength to carry forward. + +So, in the never-ending tasks which her daily life provided, and which +she performed with distress in her heart, but a smile on her lips, Rose +saw the weeks come and go, bringing in their slow-moving, but +inexorable, train, autumn, fall and another winter. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ADDED BURDEN + + +It was mid-winter. The twilight sky--cold and pale, more green than +blue--brought the thought of new-made ice. Stripped long since of their +verdure, the wooded Cumberlands lay, like naked, shivering giants, +across whose mighty recumbent torsos the biting winds swept +relentlessly. + +In contrast with the desolation without, inside Big Jerry's cabin all +was as bright, warm and homelike as a merry fire, the soft glow of the +evening lamp and the presence of the heart of the spot--the girl +herself--could make it. + +Thankful for the blessings of the cheery home and her grandfather's +presence in it still, and softly humming an old ballad which he loved, +Rose was busily engaged in preparing an early supper, when she was +interrupted by the sound of a low, uncertain knock on the door. + +She opened it, wonderingly, and the firelight leaped out into the night +and disclosed the unshaven face and gaunt form of Judd. + +Save on rare occasions, and then at a distance, she had not seen him +since that fateful day on the mountain's summit, when his passionate +love and hate, intermingled, had driven him to commit the great offence +against the unwritten laws of the feudal clan, by attacking one upon +whom the sacred mantle of hospitality had been placed, by which act he +had incurred Jerry's enmity, and made himself love's outlaw. + +The months had dealt harshly with him. Not only was his clothing frayed +and soiled; but his face was so unnaturally pale that the deep-set eyes +beneath their lowering black brows seemed to burn like embers, and there +were many new lines on his countenance not graven there by wind and +weather. + +Shocked at the change in him, and suddenly filled with womanly +compassion which sounded the knell of anger, Rose called, gently, "Judd! +Why, Judd! Come in." + +He shook his head. "I reckon I haint welcome in this hyar cabin, Smiles, +an' taint on my own ercount thet I comes ter ye." + +"Why, what is the trouble?" was her startled inquiry. + +"Hit ... hit air leetle Lou. I erlows she's sick er somethin'." + +"Lou? Tell me quick, Judd. What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't rightly know." The answer was made with obvious distress. "She +haint been her sunshiny self fer quite some time, an' ter-night ... +wall, she air actin' so sorter ... queer, thet I got skeered." + +"I'll go over home with you at once," said Rose, as she hastily caught +up and drew a shawl about her head and shoulders. "Grandpap," she called +softly through the door to the old man's bedroom, "I'm ergoin' out fer +er leetle time. One of ther neighbors air sick. Don't fret, fer I'll be +back right soon, dear." + +There was a brief, rumbled reply; and, closing the door behind her on +the warm comfort within, the girl joined the mountaineer in the crispy +evening, now almost dark. She shivered a little, and he marked the +involuntary act, and drew back a step. + +In silence they walked rapidly up the narrow path, slippery from a +recent fall of light snow. Once Rose slipped, and instantly Judd's +sinewy arm was about her waist, steadying her. Then, as she regained her +balance and started forward, it tightened and drew her suddenly to him +in a passionate, crushing embrace. She made no effort to struggle free, +or voice her heart's protest against this outrage, but stood with her +body rigid and unyielding within the circle of his arm until he slowly +released her, mumbling, "I reckon I air plumb ershamed of myself, +Smiles. I didn't go fer ter do hit, an' I knows thet I haint deservin' +ter tetch so much es ther hem of yo'r skirt." + +She did not answer, and neither spoke again until his cabin was reached. + +When the door was opened, Smiles caught sight of the child sitting +motionless on a stool near the fireplace. Her lips were parted and in +her eyes was an odd look of semi-vacuity. + +"Lou!" cried Rose, pausing in alarmed astonishment. + +A light of recognition sprang into the child's eyes, she stood up a +trifle unsteadily, and said, with a low throaty laugh of delight, "Hit +air my Smiles. I awful glad ter see...." She started toward her friend; +but her course suddenly veered to the left, waveringly, and her +wandering gaze fell upon the now sadly battered doll lying in one +corner. "To see ye, Mike," was the ending of her sentence, as she +trotted to Donald's gift and began to cuddle it. + +"Yo' haint erbeen ter see Lou fer er long, long ..." The piping voice +trailed off into silence. + +"Why, Lou, sweetheart. What is the matter? Don't you know your own +Smiles?" pleaded the deeply distressed girl, as she gathered the child +to her breast. + +The baby's hands dropped the doll unceremoniously and sought her +friend's cheeks. Looking up with big eyes into the face drawn close to +her own, she replied in a strangely slow, hesitant manner. "In course I +remembers ye, Smiles. Yo' air the nurse what lives with ... with thet +thar doctor man ... in the big city, whar air monkeys thet ... clumb +sticks an' ... an' doll babies what close thar eyes ... an' say ... an' +say ... My head hurts me, Smiles, hit do." + +She lay still in the loving arms for an instant, and then wriggled free +and, sliding to the floor, picked up and began to rock the doll again, +the while crooning a wordless lullaby. + +With anxiety growing akin to terror, Smiles felt the irregular pulse, as +Donald had taught her how to do, and pressed her hand to the pale cheek +and forehead. + +"She _is_ sick, Judd, and I'm kind of frightened, too. You can't take +care of her here, and I mean to take her home with me, right now. I +reckon you had better go down to the village and get Dr. Johnston, +quick." + +The man had started, with words of protest trembling on his lips; but, +as his look turned on his little sister, as she now leaned drowsily +against the girl's knees, he stifled them unspoken, while a spasm of +pain crossed his worn face. With a dull nod of acquiescence he held out +his arms to receive the child, whom Rose had lifted and wrapped in a +blanket from her little bed that had been brought in near the fire. + +The return journey was quickly and silently made, and, delivering the +slight bundle to Smiles when her cabin was reached, Judd set off into +the night, concern lending wings to his feet. + +"Grandpap, hit's Smiles back ergin'," called the girl softly. "An' I've +brought leetle Lou Amos. She haint feelin' right well, an' I allows I +hev got ter take keer of her here." + +The old man uttered a low growl of protest, which caused Rose to run to +him and tenderly lay her hand on his lips, with the words, "Hush, +grandpap. The baby haint in nowise ter blame fer ... fer what Judd +done. In course we hev got ter keer fer her." + +Big Jerry nodded an abashed assent, and said no more. + +Smiles undressed her new charge, who struck uncertain terror to her +heart by drowsily talking on and on, in snatches of unrelated sentences +running the gamut of her limited experiences and with the childish words +often failing, half formed. She put the baby in her own bed, and, after +the belated supper had been eaten and cleared away, and the old man made +as comfortable as possible for the night, Smiles lay down beside the +baby, whose silence and more regular breathing indicated that she was at +last asleep. + +The morrow's sun was well above the valley horizon before Judd returned +with the country doctor, and again the former refused to enter the +cabin. While the physician remained, he paced back and forth, back and +forth, with weary, nervous strides; but even in his stress of mind he +unconsciously kept out of view from the window in Big Jerry's room. + +At last Rose and Dr. Johnston reappeared, and, breathing hard, Judd +hastened to join them. + +"It's brain fever, the doctor says, Judd," said Smiles at once. "He's +left some medicine for me to give her, and you know that I'll nurse her +for you like she was my own baby." + +"Air hit ... air hit _bad_, doctor?" asked the mountaineer, with a catch +in his voice. + +"Well, of course it ain't an ... er ... exactly easy thing to cure, but +I reckon she'll get well of it. By the way, Amos, how long has she been +a-goin' on like that?" + +"I kaint rightly say, doctor. She hes acted kind er strange-like fer +quite er spell, now thet I comes ter think on hit; but I didn't pay no +pertickler attention to hit ontil er day er two back," answered the man +contritely. + +"Hmmm," said the doctor. "Oh, I guess we can pull her through all right, +and I will get up here as often as I can. Well, I reckon I'll be +stepping along back." + + * * * * * + +But little Lou did not fulfil the country practitioner's optimistic +prophecy. The change in her condition, as day after day crept by, +growing longer and colder, was almost imperceptible; but it was steadily +for the worse. The mountain winter closed in with unusual rigors, and +Smiles' cabin continued to be a hospital where she passed her hours +ministering equally to the keen-minded, but bodily tortured old +man--whose heart pained constantly and with growing severity, and whose +breathing became daily more labored--and the child whose mind steadily +became more clouded and her physical functions more weak. + +Like a gaunt, miserable dog which had been driven from his home, Judd +haunted the cabin. When she stole out one morning, to speak with him +about Lou, Smiles cried, "Oh, if Doctor Mac were only here now! _He_ +would know what to do, I'm sure." + +Judd's hands, blue with cold, clenched so violently that the knuckles +grew a bloodless white, and the look of pain, lying deep down in his +eyes, changed to a flash of burning hate. + +"Don't never speak thet man's name ter me, gal." + +The words were spoken in a harsh voice and he strode abruptly away. + +At more and more infrequent intervals, the village doctor made his +toilsome way up the slippery mountain side, sat regarding the little +patient with a hopelessly puzzled look, and finally departed, shaking +his head; but he never failed to leave behind him another bottle of +obnoxious medicine on the chance that if one did not produce an +improvement, another might. Even to the girl it was all too apparent, +however, that he was aiming blindly into the dark. + +There came a time when the child spoke scarcely at all, save to moan +piteously something about the pain in her head; her emaciated legs +barely carried her on her uncertain course; her vague, sweet eyes turned +inward more and more; and it was with the greatest difficulty, and only +by the exercise of infinite patience that Smiles could feed her. The +little mountain blossom was wilting and fading slowly away. + +On the afternoon of the first day of January Dr. Johnston spent a long +time at the cabin, striving against the impossible to solve the problem +which confronted him like an appalling mystery, far too deep to be +pierced by the feeble ray of science at his command. + +At last he arose with a gesture of finality, and announced to the +anxiously waiting girl, "I reckon I'm done. I won't go so fur as to say +that a city specialist might not be able to help her; but hanged if _I_ +can. The trouble is too much for me, and I guess Lou is just a-goin' to +die." + +Sudden tears welled into Smiles' luminous eyes, and ran unheeded down +her cheeks, now unnaturally thin and wan. + +"Hit haint so," she cried in a choked voice. "Lou haint ergoin' ter die, +Dr. Johnston!" + +Suddenly she stopped, as her thoughts flew backward on the wings of +memory. Her eyes grew larger, a strange light came into them. Then, +speaking slowly, almost as though the words were impelled by a will +other than her own, she added with a tone of absolute certainty: + +"Yo' allows _yo'_ don't know what the trouble air, but _I_ does." + +The doctor was startled and looked as though he thought that he was +about to have another patient on his hands. + +"Hit air a brain tumor thet she hes got, I knows it, an' I knows one of +the few doctor men in this hyar country what kin cure hit. He air +_ergoin'_ ter cure hit fer me, an' leetle Lou haint _ergoin'_ ter die." + +Uncertain what to make of this outburst, the doctor departed rather +hastily. Smiles caught up her shawl and ran immediately to Judd's +lonely, cheerless abode, which she entered without a thought of +knocking. She found the man sitting dejectedly before a feeble fire. + +He sprang up, voiceless terror apparent in the look which he turned upon +her white face, but, without pausing for any preliminaries, Rose said, +"The doctor, he's been ter see our little Lou again, Judd. He allows +thet he can't do anything more for her, and thet she has got ter die." + +The man--whose whole world was now centred in the child to whom he had, +for a year, been father and mother as well as brother--sank down on his +chair and buried his face in his hands. + +"I knowed hit," he muttered in a dead voice. + +"Hit haint so," cried the girl, who had by this time wholly relapsed +into the mountain speech, as she frequently did still, when laboring +under the stress of emotion. "Hit haint so, Judd. We kin save her. We +hev _got_ ter save her." + +"Thar haint no way." The words were tuned to despair. + +"Thar _air_ a way. Thar's one man who kin save Lou's life fer ye, an' we +must get him ter do hit.". + +She had mentioned no name, but Judd sprang swiftly erect, fists clenched +and shaking above his head. "Do yo' think thet I'd be beholden ter +_thet_ man, after what I done ter him? Do yo' think thet I'd accept +even my sister's life et his hands? I hates him like I does the devil +what, I reckon, air ergoin' ter git my soul!" + +"Judd!" cried the girl, "yo' don't know what yo'r ersayin'. Hit's +blasphemy. Ef Doctor Mac kin save Lou's life--an' he _kin_--yo'd be a +murderer,--yes, a murderer uv yo'r own flesh an' blood, ter forbid him." + +Spent by the force of his previous passionate outburst, the man sank +tremblingly back into the chair again. + +"I kaint do hit, Smiles," he answered piteously. "I kaint do hit, an' +hit's a foolish thought anyway. He wouldn't come hyar. Hit takes money +fer ter git city doctors, an' I haint got none." + +"He will come ef I asks him, an' I hev money, Judd," she said with a +pleading voice. + +"No, no, no. Ef Lou dies, I reckon I'll kill myself, too; but I forbids +ye ter call the man I wronged, an' hates." + +Slowly the girl turned away, with a compassionate glance at the bent, +soul-tortured youth, went out of the cabin, and softly closed the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"SMILES'" APPEAL + + +It was snowing when she stepped outside,--a soft, white curtain of +closely woven flakes rapidly dimming the early evening glow and bringing +nightshades on apace. The wind, too, was rising; its first fitful gusts +drove the snow sweeping in whirling flurries across the open spaces, and +then whistled off through the leafless trees. + +Rose shivered. The wind greeted her boisterously. It clutched her shawl +in hoydenish jest, tore one end of it free from her grasp, and ran its +invisible, icy fingers down her neck. + +The cabin of the nearest neighbor--Pete Andrews--was only a few rods +distant; but, before the girl reached it in the face of the momentarily +increasing storm, she was panting, and her face, hair and clothing were +plastered with clinging flakes. + +"Mis' Andrews, I hates ter ask er favor of ye such er powerful mean +night; but I needs help," said Smiles, as soon as the door had been +opened, letting her in, together with a whirl of snow which spread +itself like a ghost on the rough floor. + +"Yo' knows thet I'd do enything in ther world fer ye, Rose gal. I reckon +I owes ye my life since when ... when Gawd Almighty tuck my baby back +ter thet garden er His'n in Paradise," answered the frail, weary-looking +woman, whose eyes quickly suffused with tears. + +"Hit haint repayment I'm askin' of ye, but er favor, Mis' Andrews. I +wants ye ter help me save ther life of another mountin flower, what's +nigh faded plum erway." + +"Lou Amos?" asked the woman. She had already turned to get her own +shawl. + +"Yes, hit's leetle Lou. She air powerful sick, an' I wants fer ye ter +stay ter-night with her an' grandpap, ef yo' will. Thar haint nothing +ter do but stay with them." + +"In course I'll do hit fer ye, Smiles," was the ready answer, and her +lank, slouching husband nodded a silent assent, as she turned to him. + +"But what air yo' reckonin' ter do? Yo' kaint go nowhar in this hyar +storm. I don't recollect hits like on the mountain, no time." + +The girl did not answer; but held the door open while the other stepped +out, only to catch her breath and flatten herself against the cabin's +wall as a sheet of mingled sleet and snow struck her. By continually +assisting one another, the two made their way slowly over to Jerry's +home; and, when they paused within its shelter, Rose held her +companion's arm a moment, and said, "Thar haint no use tryin' ter +prevent me, Mis' Andrews, cause I'm ergoin' ter do hit. I'm ergoin' down +ter Fayville, an' send a telegram message fer er city doctor thet I +knows, ter come hyar an' make Lou well. Don't go fer ter tell grandpap +whar I've gone er he'll worry erbout me, an' thar haint no cause ter. +The storm's et my back, an' hits all down hill goin'. I hates ter tell a +lie ter him, but I allows I've got ter, this one time." + +In sudden terror over the mad plan, the older woman began to protest; +but Rose shook off her detaining hand, and put an end to the sentence by +leading the way hastily into the cabin. + +"Thar's a leetle child what needs my help, an' I've got ter take keer of +her fer er while, grandpap," Smiles said at once. "Mis' Andrews hes come +over fer ter stay with ye and Lou, now haint thet kind uv her? I'll git +back es soon es ever I kin, but don't yo' fret ef hit haint erfore yo' +goes ter bed ... or even till mornin' time." + +She furtively obtained a few bills from her precious store, kissed the +old man's haggard, wrinkled cheek, and the white forehead of the baby +who lay on the bed, almost inert save for the restless moving of her +head from side to side, and the low moans which came with almost every +breath, and hurried out into the storm. + +In later years Rose could be induced to speak only with the greatest +reluctance of that journey down the snow-swept mountain path--for the +blizzard was as fierce as it was rare--and even the recollection of it +brought a look of terror into her eyes. + +There was flying horror abroad that night, and the demented trees +quivered and tossed their great arms so wildly that they cracked and +broke, to fall crashing in the path. Yet, accomplish the five mile long, +perilous descent, in the midst of lashing sleet and snow, over a +slippery, tortuous path, she did. With her clothing torn by flaying +branches and clutching wind, and drenched by icy water as the snow +melted; with her hands and lips blue, and her feet numb; with her wavy +hair pulled loose from its braids and plastered wetly against her +colorless cheeks; she eventually stumbled into the rude building which +contained the railroad and telegraph office at the terminus of the +branch line at Fayville. Then she fell, half unconscious, into the arms +of the astonished agent, who came to the door when he heard her stumble +weakly against it. + +"Good God, child, where did you come from?" he cried. + +Smiles' lips moved faintly, and he caught an echo of the words which she +had been repeating mechanically, over and over, "She haint ergoin' ter +die!" + +"I reckon she ain't, if human will can save her ... whoever _she_ is," +muttered the man, as he laid the exhausted girl on a rude waiting bench, +poured between her bruised lips a few drops of smuggled whiskey from a +pocket flask, and then unceremoniously cut her shoe lacings and removed +her sodden, icy boots. + +After a moment, she sat weakly up, and--punctuated by gasps drawn by +exquisite pain--managed to pant out, "I've got to send a telegram ... +to-night ... now. Oh, _please_, Mister, don't wait for anything." + +"There, there. We'll take care of your message all right. Don't worry, +little woman," he answered, reassuringly. "But I ain't a-goin' ter send a +tick till you're thawed out. My missus lives upstairs, an' she'll fix +you up." + +He half-carried, half-helped the weary girl up the narrow stairs, and, +having surrendered her into the charge of a kindly and solicitous woman, +hastened to rekindle the wood fire in the stove. As its iron top began +to regain the ruddy glow which had scarcely faded from it, Rose crept +near, holding out her bent, stiffened hands. + +"Now, take it easy, little girl," cautioned the agent. "Not too close at +first." + +"And take off your dress and stockings, dear," said his wife. "Don't +give no thought to him,--we've got three daughters of our own, most +growed up." + +The agent departed, with a heavy clamping of feet on the stairs, and +gratefully--but with hands which were so numb that she had to give up in +favor of the woman--Rose obeyed; and soon her teeth stopped their +chattering, and the red blood of youth began once more to course through +her veins, while her drenched, simple undergarments sent up vaporous +white flags which indicated that the watery legions of the storm king +were fast surrendering to their ancient enemy--Fire. + +The older woman wrapped a blanket about the girl, as her husband came +upstairs again with a pad of telegram blanks, and said, "Now, I'll write +out the message you've got to send for you, if you want me to." + +"Thank you, sir. I'm obliged to you and your missus. I reckon you can +put the words better than I can, for I haint ... I have never sent one +before. It's for Dr. Donald MacDonald, who lives on Commonwealth Avenue, +up north in Boston city. And I want to tell him that little Lou Amos is +most dying from a brain tumor. And tell him that she is nearly blind and +'comatose'...." + +"That word's a new one to me, how do you spell it?" interrupted the +agent, with pencil plowing through his rumpled hair. + +"I ... I guess I've forgotten. Spell it like it sounds, and he'll know. +And tell him that I will pay him all the money I've got, if he'll only +come quick." + +"How shall I sign it? It has to have your name, you know." + +"Say it's from his foster-sister, Rose." + +Laboriously the man wrote out the message, and the floor was littered +with discarded attempts before he was satisfied; but in time the +distant, slow clicking of the telegraph key below was sending not only +the child's eager appeal to its destination many hundred miles north, +but a message of renewed hope into the heart of Smiles. + +"It will cost you more'n a dollar," said the man, as he appeared again. +"But if you haven't got that much, why ..." + +"I've got it right here," responded the girl, turning on him for an +instant a glowing smile of gratitude for his halting offer. "I'm truly +more'n obliged to you, sir ... and your wife. I reckon God meant that +you should be here to-night to help save the life of a dear little +child," she added simply. + +"Now I'll just put on my things and be startin' back home." + +"Startin' home? Well, I reckon not. You're a-goin' to stay right here +to-night, and let my woman put you straight to bed. That's what you're +a-goin' to do." + +Smiles' protests were all in vain, and soon the weary body and mind were +relaxed in the sleep which follows hard on the heels of exhaustion. + + * * * * * + +It was close on to midnight when Dr. Donald MacDonald reached his +apartment after a rare theatre party with his fiancee. His day's work +had been exacting, and he was doubly tired. The thought of bed held an +almost irresistible appeal. + +As he inserted his latch key in the lock, he heard the telephone bell in +his office ringing insistently; his heart sank, and cried a rebellious +answer. + +Combined force of habit and the call of duty caused him to hasten to the +instrument, however, without stopping to remove hat or coat, and to his +ear came a small, distant voice saying, "A telegram for Dr. Donald +MacDonald. Is he ready to receive it?" + +"Yes ... Hold on a minute until I get a pencil.... All right, go ahead." + +"It is dated from Fayville, Virginia, January 1, 1914. 8:30 P.M. Are you +getting it?" + +"Yes, yes. Go on," cried the man, with increasing heart pulsations. + +"'Dr. Donald MacDonald, Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. Lou Amos dying +of brain tumor almost blind and 'k-o-m-o-t-o-s-e'"--she spelt it +out--"'Come at once if possible I will pay.' It is signed, 'Your +foster-sister Rose.' Did you get it? Yes? Wait a moment, please, there +is another one dated and addressed the same. The message reads, 'Girl +came alone down mountain in howling blizzard. Case urgent. Signed, +Thomas Timmins, Station Agent.' That is all." + +"Thank you. Good-night," said Donald mechanically, as he replaced the +receiver. + +Through the partly open folding door he could dimly see that enticing +bed, with his pajamas and bath robe laid across it. It seemed to him as +though it were calling to his weary body with a siren's voice, or had +suddenly acquired the properties of the cup of Tantalus. He hesitated, +and moved a step toward it. Then the vision of Rose as he had last seen +her, with the ethereal smile trembling on lips that struggled bravely +to laugh, and in deep misty eyes, came between it and him. + +Still clad in hat and overcoat, he seated himself at the desk and called +up first the information bureau of the South Terminal Station, then his +young associate, Dr. Philip Bentley, in whose charge he was accustomed +to leave his regular patients when called away from the city for any +length of time; and finally a house used as a semi-club by trained +nurses. + +When his last call was answered he asked, "Is Miss Merriman registered +with you now? This is Dr. MacDonald speaking." + +After a wait of several minutes, during which he felt himself nod +repeatedly, a sleepy voice spoke over the wire, "This is Miss Merriman, +Dr. MacDonald. I'm just off a case." + +"Good. I'm lucky ... that is if you're game to take another one +immediately." + +"Yes, doctor. Do you want me to-night?" + +"No, to-morrow ... this morning, that is, will do. I shall want you to +meet me at the South Station, New York train, at seven o'clock." + +"Yes, doctor. What sort of a case is it?" + +"Same as the last you assisted me in--brain tumor. But we're going +further this trip ... the jumping-off place in Virginia. It's up in the +mountains, so take plenty of warm clothes." + +"Very well, doctor." Then there came a little laugh, for these two were +excellent friends now, and the query, "Another record-breaking fee?" + +"I'll tell you to-morrow," he replied. "Don't forget, seven o'clock +train for New York. Good-night." + +"Good-night, doctor." + +Donald turned away from the desk, and for a moment stood motionless. + +"God bless her brave, trusting, little heart," he said half aloud. + +And he was not thinking of Miss Merriman. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ANSWER + + +More than once Rose caught herself wondering if, after that day was +done, she would ever be able to smile again. In obedience to the +doctor's prescription for Big Jerry, which it was ever her first duty to +fill, she never looked towards him--as he sat bent over before the fire, +eyes heavy with pain, breath coming in deep rasps, but lips set firmly +against a word of complaint--without sending him a message of love and +compassion through the intangible medium of that smile. Yet, as the +weary hours dragged on with plodding feet, it seemed to her as though +each new one was not an interest payment on a fund of happiness stored +within her heart, but a heavy dipping into the principal itself. + +Before she had taken her early morning departure back up to the mountain +over the sodden, slippery path, she had received a telegram that Donald +had sent off as his last act before yielding to the lure of bed, and +which brought her the hope-engendering word that he would be with her as +soon as swift-speeding trains could bring him. + +But that was yesterday. By no possibility could he reach them before the +coming evening, and surely never had the sun taken so long to make his +wintry journey across the pale blue sky. + +Hour after hour Rose sat by the bedside of little Lou, and tenderly +stroked her cold small hands while she hummed unanswered lullabies, each +note of which was the chant of a wordless prayer. The sufferer lay so +white, so utterly still, save for the periods when her every breath was +a faint moan or she suddenly shook and twisted in a convulsive spasm, +that time and again the girl started up with a cry of terror frozen on +her lips but echoing in her heart, and bent fearfully over to press her +ear close against the baby's thin breast. As often it caught the barely +discernible beat of the little heart within. + +The baby's eyes, now piteously crossed, had turned upward until the +starlike pupils were almost out of sight. There were long periods when +only the occasional twitching of the bloodless, childishly curved and +parted lips, or the uneasy moving of the golden crowned head on the +pillow, betrayed the fact that the spark of life still glowed faintly. +Could she, by the power of will and prayer, keep that spark alight until +the one on whom she pinned her faith should arrive, and fan it back to a +flame by his miraculous skill? That was Smiles' one thought. + +The violet shadows of evening began at last to tinge the virgin +whiteness of the out-of-doors, and Rose caught herself starting eagerly, +with quickened pulse, at every new forest sound. The crunching tread of +Judd, who paced incessantly outside the window, grew almost unbearable. +She counted the steps as they died away, and listened for them to +return, until her nerves shrieked in protest, and it was only by an +effort that she curbed their clamoring demand that she rush to the door +and scream at him; bid him stand still or begone. + + * * * * * + +Through the shadows Donald was once again making his way up the now +familiar mountain side. To have climbed up the footpath with Miss +Merriman and their essential baggage would have been impossible, and he +had, after much persuasion, finally succeeded in hiring a man in +Fayville to drive them up in a springless, rickety wagon. This had +necessitated their taking a much more circuitous route, and what seemed +like an interminably long time. + +During the railway journey from the Hub, he had told his companion all +of the relevant facts, and much of the story of Rose, and the nurse's +sympathetic interest in the recital had made her almost as anxious as +the man himself to arrive at their destination and answer the girl's cry +for aid. + +Once she had voiced a doubt as to the wisdom of leaving his urgent +practice and taking such a trip on so slender grounds. + +"But how do you know that it _is_ brain tumor, doctor, or that there is +either any chance of saving the child's life, or any real need of a +surgeon? At the most you have only the conclusion of a country doctor +who can hardly be competent to determine such a question." + +"I have considered all that, Miss Merriman," he had replied, shortly, +and then added, as though he felt that an explanation were due, +"Frankly, when I made up my mind to go, I wasn't thinking of the patient +so much as I was of my foster-sister. Perhaps she won't appeal to you as +she has to me; but I really feel a strong responsibility for her future, +and I don't want her faith in m ... in physicians to be shattered. You +see, I have held up the ideal of service, regardless of reward, as our +motto." He sat silently looking out of the car window for a moment, +while the nurse studied his serious, purposeful face and mentally +revised her previous estimate of him. Then he went on, with an +apologetic laugh, "Besides--Oh, I know that it sounds utterly +preposterous, but there are times when a man's groundless premonitions +are more real to him than any logical conclusions of his own. This is +one of those times." + +The subject dropped. + +Donald had, in addition to a fortnight's compensation in advance, given +Miss Merriman a return ticket and sufficient money to cover all +necessary disbursements, and told her that she must, of course, look to +him for any additional salary. Under no circumstances, he said, was she +to accept what Rose was sure to try and press upon her. + +At length the plodding horse turned into the little clearing before +Jerry's cabin, and, as it appeared, the watcher outside, his face +twitching, slunk silently away into the forest, where his racked soul +was to endure its hours of Gethsemane. + +Rose heard them. She hastened to the door, and her white lips uttered a +low cry which spoke the overwhelming measure of her relief. + +"I just _knew_ you'd come!" she said, as the man, numbed with cold, +swung his companion to the ground. The girl gave her a quick glance of +surprise; but her eyes instantly returned to the doctor's face with an +expression which Miss Merriman decided was as nearly worship as she had +ever seen. + +Donald did not return her greeting in words at first; but, after he had +paid the driver, so liberally that the latter was left speechless, and +they had entered the cabin, he held out his strong arms to her. Smiles +swayed into them and pressed her face against the thick fur of his coat +with an almost soundless sigh that told the whole story of anxious +waiting and the end of the tension that had left its mark on her +childlike face. + +"This, Miss Merriman, is my little foster-sister, Rose. And Miss +Merriman is a nurse who has come to help us," said he, as he released +her, and passed on to greet the old giant, who had slowly pulled his +shattered, towering frame from his chair, and now stood with a gaunt +hand held out in welcome, while a ghost of his one-time hearty smile +shadowed his lips. Big Jerry's flowing beard was now snow-white, and +Donald was shocked at the change which had taken place in him. + +Their greeting was brief and simple, as between men whose hearts are +charged, and, as soon as he had eased him back into his seat, Donald +spoke with a quick assumption of his professional bearing. + +"Now, about our little patient. How is she, Rose?" + +"Close to the eternal gates, I'm afraid," whispered the girl, with a +catch in her voice. "Oh, Donald, we cannot let her ..." she turned +abruptly and led the way to the door of her tiny bedroom. The doctor +stepped inside and looked briefly, but searchingly, at the child who lay +there, silent, and the semblance of Death itself. With her lips caught +by her teeth, and her hands clasped tightly together to still her +trembling, Rose watched him. + +His next words, spoken as he stepped back into the cabin and shook +himself free of his greatcoat, were brusquely non-committal. "And the +doctor? Where is he?" + +"The doctor? Why, he ... he isn't here; he hasn't been here for days. He +doesn't even know that you were coming ... that I had sent for you." + +"What? But I don't understand, child. Of course he ought to be here." +Donald's voice was so sharp that it brought the tears, that were so near +the surface, into Smiles' eyes, perceiving which, he hastened to add +more gently, "There, there, of course you didn't know; but I can hardly +hope to diagnose ... to determine what the trouble really is, or where +the growth, if there is one, is located, unless I get a full history of +the case from him and his own conclusions to help me." + +"But ... but, Donald, he didn't _have_ any conclusions. He said it was +... was brain fever, first, and then he gave up trying and told us that +Lou had just got to die. Besides, _I_ know the ... the history...." She +stopped, with a little wail of distress. + +"'Brain _fever_!' Then who ... the telegram certainly said 'tumor.'" + +"Yes, yes. _I_ said that. Oh, I can't tell you why; but I just _know_ +that it is, Donald, for little Lou has been exactly like you told me +that baby up north was--the one you saved by a ... a miracle. Oh, don't +you remember? It was in the paper." + +Her sentences had become piteously incoherent; but their significance +slowly dawned upon him. To Miss Merriman the conversation was somewhat +of an enigma, and she stood aside, regarding Rose with an expression +half bewildered, half frightened. Had this strange child summoned so +famous a physician, whose moments, even, were golden, to the heart of +the Cumberlands on her own initiative and on the strength of her own +childish guess, merely? It was incredible, a tragic farce. + +Perhaps something of similar import passed swiftly through the man's +mind, for he placed his large hands upon the girl's slender shoulders, +and, for an instant, sent a searching gaze deep into her eyes, now +luminous with unshed tears, as he had first seen them. They looked up at +him troubled, but frankly trusting. + +"Do you mean, Rose," his words came slowly, "that you sent for me +without a doctor's suggestion and advice; that you did it on your own +hook?" + +She nodded. "I just couldn't bear to have her die. She is all that ... +that Judd has got in the world, now, and I knew that you could save her +for him." + +His hands felt the controlled tension of her body, and he impulsively +drew her close to him. When he answered, his voice was strangely gentle. + +"It's all right, little doctor. I'm glad that you did, and only hope +that I can help. Now, let's all sit down here before the fire--how good +it feels after that bitter ride, doesn't it, Miss Merriman?--and you +will tell me all that you can about the baby's trouble--every single +thing that you have noticed from the first, no matter how little it is. +You see, that only by knowing exactly how the patient has acted can the +surgeon even hope to guess where the trouble has its seat. Once before I +told you that a nurse has got to face the truth, understandingly and +bravely, and I may as well tell you about some of the difficulties which +lie in the path that we must tread to-night. Your faith has been +almost--sublime, dear. I wonder if it would have failed if you had +known how like a child in knowledge--a child searching in the dark--is a +surgeon at such a time as this?" + +"I ... I don't believe that I understand, and you kind of frightened me, +Don. I thought that all you would have to do would be to ... to cut out +that awful thing that is stealing away Lou's precious life. Wasn't that +what you did for that other little child?" + +"Yes, but ... how am I going to explain? If there is a tumor, as we +think, I'll do my best to take it away; but, in order to do that, I +have, of course, got to go inside of her skull right to the brain +itself, and the trouble might be here, or here, or here." He touched her +now profusion of curls at different cranial points. "That is the riddle +which you and I must solve, and I have got to look to you for the key. +The human brain is still a book of mystery to us. Some day, physicians +will be able to read it with full understanding; but so far, we have, +after thousands of years, barely learned how to open its covers and +guess at the meaning of what lies hidden within." + +Rose had edged close to Miss Merriman on the rough bench before the +fire, and, with the older woman's arm about her, now sat, wide-eyed and +wondering, while Donald talked. As he kept his gaze fixed on the glowing +heart of the fire, he seemed, in time, to be musing aloud rather than +consciously explaining. + +"This much we have learned, however; that certain parts of the brain +control all the different actions or functions of the body--I've called +it a telegraph station once before...." he paused, and both thought of +little Mike in his last home under the snow ... "with different keys, +each sending its message over a separate wire. So you see that, if we +can learn exactly what the message has been, I mean by that just how +certain parts of the body have been affected--Miss Merriman would call +them the 'localizing symptoms'--we can often tell almost exactly which +key is being disarranged by the pressure of a foreign growth, such as a +tumor. Do you think that you can understand that, Rose?" + +She nodded slowly. + +"That is the first, the great and most difficult thing for us to do. The +rest depends, in part, upon the mechanical skill of the surgeon, but far +more upon Fate, for there are certain kinds of growths which may be +removed with a fair chance of success--it is only that, at present--and +others ... but we won't consider the others. Lou is young, and in one +way that is in our favor. If there _is_ a tumor, there is less +likelihood of infiltration," he added, glancing at the nurse. + +Rose opened her lips as though to ask a question, and then decided not +to, but her expression caused Donald to say, "Come child, don't look so +frightened." + +"But I didn't know ... it's so ... so terrible. How can any one live if +his head is cut open like that?" + +"It sounds desperate, doesn't it," he answered, lightly, "But with our +anesthetics, which put the patient quietly to sleep, and our new, +specially made instruments, the trained and careful surgeon can perform +the operation quite easily--as far as the mechanical part goes, I mean. +But, you can see how all-important it is for you to tell me just how Lou +has been affected. I know what a good memory you have; make it count +to-night." + +With her breathing quickened, and eyes shining from pent-up excitement, +Rose began. Simply and painstakingly she recounted everything which she +had observed about the baby's strange behavior from that painful night +when she had brought her from Judd's lonely cabin, through the long days +in which she had steadily weakened and failed, to the time when the +invisible hand of Death seemed to have begun to pluck at the thread of +life itself. + +Donald listened intently, without a word of interruption, until she +suddenly broke off her recital with the words, "Oh, I can't think of +anything more, truly I can't; and I'm so afraid ... afraid that it +hasn't been enough to help." + +Miss Merriman's encircling arm closed comfortingly about the girl, and +she patted the head which turned and burrowed into her shoulder, but she +said nothing, waiting for the man to speak. He mused for a moment, and +then his words came with the crisp incisiveness of a lawyer in +cross-examination. + +"As she lost control of her legs and began to waver and stumble when she +tried to walk, did she seem to turn, or fall, to one side more than to +the other? Think!" + +The anxiety deepened in Smiles' eyes; but she answered without +hesitation, "No, I don't think so. It was more as though her little body +was plumb tuckered out." + +"And her hearing? Did that fail?" + +"No, not until just toward the last, anyway. Even when she couldn't seem +to answer me, somehow I was quite sure that she understood, when I +spoke, or sang, to her. She would kinder smile, but, oh, it was such a +pitiful smile that it 'most broke my heart." + +"She seemed to understand, eh?" He paused, and the room was very still, +except for Big Jerry's stentorian breathing. "Can you say quite +certainly--don't be afraid to answer just exactly what you think--can +you say, then, that, aside from the general weakness of all the powers +of her little body and mind, the headache and occasional sickness, the +most noticeable thing in all her strange behavior was that she wasn't +able to talk clearly, and this increased until she wholly lost the power +of speech which happened before she became as ... as I see her now?" + +"Yes, doctor." + +Donald turned abruptly to the nurse. "Barring the use of technical +phraseology, and a possible expression of his own, probably valueless, +conclusions, could any doctor, such as is likely to be practising in +Fayville, have given me any more information, or told it better?" + +"No, doctor." + +At these unexpected words of praise the girl's smile appeared mistily +for a moment, and then quivered away. + +There was silence again in the cabin, while the man turned his +thoughtful gaze back to the fire, which had now turned to glowing orange +embers. A far-off look, alien to his keen, masterful face crept into it. +Finally he seemed to shake off his new mood, and spoke with a queer +laugh. + +"I told you on the train that I was the victim of an uncanny +premonition. I guess that Horatio was right about there being many +things outside the ken of our limited philosophy. What psychic whisper +from a world whose existence we men of 'common sense'"--he spoke the +words sarcastically--"are loath to credit; what inspiration, born of the +memory of that story of the case of the Bentley Moors' child in New +York, which I told her in words of one syllable six months ago, was it +that brought the light of truth to this girl's mind, when the village +doctor utterly failed to catch so much as a glimmer of it?" + +"Then you think, doctor ...?" began Miss Merriman. + +"My diagnosis coincides with Smiles',--a tumorous growth on the brain, +probably upon the third left frontal convolution ... right here," he +said in explanation, as he touched his forehead between the left eyebrow +and the hair. "Rose, you have done excellently. Now we, too, will do +what we can, and we shall need your help in full measure to-night. I +know that it is going to be bitterly hard for you, perhaps the hardest +thing that you will ever be called upon to do in all your life; you've +got to be a woman, and a brave one. I'd spare you if I could, but...." + +"But I don't want to be spared, Donald," she interrupted, eagerly. + +"I know, and I trust you more than I could any grown-up woman here in +the mountains. It's hardly necessary to tell you again, that a nurse is +a soldier, and must be not only brave, but obedient. If we decide to ... +to go ahead I will be, not your friend, but your superior officer for a +while, and, if my orders seem harsh and even cruel, you must not +hesitate, or feel hurt. You understand that, don't you, dear?" + +"Yes, doctor. I understand." + +She spoke bravely, but her voice trembled a little. + +"Good. Before I make my final examination, Miss Merriman and I have got +to change our clothes. She will use your room and I the loft; but first +let us bring Lou's bed out here by the fire." + +It was done. + +"Now," he continued, "while we are getting ready, there are a number of +things which you have got to do, and you will have to work fast. First, +make grandfather comfortable in his room, and build up this fire. Then +heat up as much water as the big kettle will hold, and see that a +smaller one is scoured absolutely clean. Start some water heating in +that, too. Finally, undress Lou completely, and wrap her in a blanket. +Can you remember all that?" + +"Yes, Donald ... yes, doctor." + +Donald smiled, and added, "One thing more. Partly fill a pillow-case +with sand, or dirt, if it is possible to get any. Perhaps the ground in +the wood-house isn't frozen so hard but that you can get it." + +She nodded wonderingly. + +In a quarter of an hour her duties were completed and Miss Merriman and +Donald had appeared, clad in their spotless white garments of service. +Rose, likewise, was in her play uniform, which was now considerably too +small for her, and her appearance in it would have caused a smile if it +had not been more provocative of tears. + +Six months earlier the doctor and nurse, assisted by others of the most +skilled and highly trained that the metropolis afforded, had prepared to +perform the same desperate service in humanity's cause, within the +perfectly appointed operating room of a modern city hospital. How +different was the setting now! + +In the rude, but homey room of the mountain cabin, lighted only by +old-fashioned lamps and lanterns and the pulsating blaze of the fire in +the cavernous fireplace, whose colorful gleam touched with gold the +scoured copper of pot and kettle, the three workers, in the immaculate +garments of a city sickroom, bent intently over the naked form of the +nearly insensible child, to whose alabaster body the leaping flames +imparted a simulated glow of warm tones. + +The general examination was brief, and made in silence. Then Donald drew +the covering over the little body as a sculptor might the cloth over his +statue, and straightened up with a look in his gray eyes that was new to +Rose. + +He spoke in curt sentences. "Of course the case is far more desperate +than our last, Miss Merriman. It's the proverbial 'one chance in a +thousand.' On that single thread hangs the child's life." + +Suddenly he startled Rose by giving a short, mirthless laugh, and, +turning away, he began to speak in an undertone, as though unconscious +of the presence of the other two, for, despite his previous calm, the +thought of what was in prospect had keyed up his nerves to a pitch where +they quivered like the E string of a violin. + +"Good God, what a colossal nerve a man is sometimes called upon to have +in this world. Of course she'll die in twenty-four hours if I _don't_ +operate; but only a fool--or a genius--would tackle _this_ operation +under such impossible conditions. Practically none of the things here +that science says are necessary. 'A fool, or a genius.'"--He suddenly +smote his hands together, and said, "I hope that I'm a fool for +to-night. God takes care of them ... and drunkards. I wish I had a +strong slug of Judd's white whiskey, it might steady my nerves. + +"Where _is_ Judd?" he snapped out, aloud, turning to Rose. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A MODERN MIRACLE + + +"I don't know. He was here when you came, but I saw him going up the +mountain into the woods. But I'll answer for him; I'll take that chance, +doctor. She is nearly as dear to me as she is to him, and I know that +she is going to die, unless ... unless ..." + +"I knew you'd say it. Well, we'll operate, Miss Merriman." + +Donald's voice was calm, impersonal again, and his tone had a steely +quality, as though his lancet or scalpel had become endowed with a +voice, and spoken. + +Silently, and with practised hands, the nurse began to unpack his bag +and lay out upon a sheet, which she obtained from Rose and spread over +the rough table, the many strange instruments, bottles, rolls of +bandages and sponges in their sterile packages. + +"Have you any baking soda--saleratus, Rose?" + +She nodded. + +"Good. Put about a teaspoonful in the smaller kettle, and boil these +instruments for ten minutes, while we are making the final preparations. +I want some hot water, too." + +He turned away, and for a moment stood looking up at the calm heavens in +which the stars made openings for the white eternity beyond to shine +through. Something in the scene bore his thoughts back to that summer +evening when the mountain man of God had tried so earnestly to minister +to his own disease. Snatches of sentences re-echoed in his memory. Then +he stepped back to Smiles' side and his voice was soft, as he said, "I +suppose that, whenever a surgeon begins an operation like this one, he +has an unformed prayer deep in his heart, though he may not realize to +whom he prays. There was never more occasion for one than to-night, +Rose. I know that the Great Healer is nearer to you than to me. Ask Him +that my hand may not falter." + +She nodded again, sweetly serious. + +Once more his accustomed bluntness of manner returned, and he snapped, +"Oh, why in the devil didn't I have sense enough to bring another +assistant?" + +"I am here, doctor," answered the girl. + +"Yes, yes, I know." He regarded her with the old, searching look. Then, +to the nurse, "It's only one of the many chances we have got to take. +When you put the patient under the anaesthetic you will show Rose exactly +how it is administered, for she will have to keep her unconscious +without any further aid from you after I begin to operate. We have _got_ +to trust her, Miss Merriman," he added shortly, as he caught the +expression of grave doubt which the nurse could not keep from appearing +on her countenance. "See that she washes and sterilizes her hands +thoroughly. That hot water, Rose. I want a basinful." + +She supplied it, then departed to do the rest of his bidding, and for +some moments was kept so busy that she did not realize what the other +two were doing at the bedside, other than to note that Donald had raised +the head of the bed by blocking up the legs with firelogs, and covered +it with a rubber sheet such as she had never seen before. + +When she did, however, return to the side of the little sufferer, whose +face was far whiter than the clean, but coarse, sheet which covered the +emaciated body, a low cry of protest and grief was wrung from her lips. +Already most of the lovely ringlets of spun gold, which had won for the +baby Donald's characterization of "Little Buttercup," gleamed on the +rough floor, and the ruthless but necessary sacrifice was being +continued. + +There were tears on her cheeks as she aided the doctor to scrub the +shorn scalp, until the child moaned and turned her head from side to +side. + +"He is my commanding officer. He told me that I must always remember +that, and obey," whispered Rose to herself, as Donald, in his +abstraction, began to snap forth his orders in a manner and tone which, +for a moment, made her shrink and quiver. His words were often +unintelligible to her, until Miss Merriman, silent-footed and efficient, +translated them into action, as, before the wide eyes of the mountain +child, there began to unfold the swift drama of modern surgical science +at its pinnacle, amid that fantastic setting. + +Strange words, indeed, were those which now fell on her attentive ears, +many of them far outside the bounds of her limited vocabulary; yet, +stranger still, she soon began to grasp their meaning intuitively, and +her quick native perception, keyed high by emergency, led her often to +anticipate the physician's wish, and act upon it. More than once she won +a look of surprise from the older woman. + +Donald's directions to Miss Merriman were curt and incisive; but soon he +did not limit his speech to them. Rather he seemed to be uttering his +thoughts aloud; the old habit of making a running explanation for the +benefit of a clinic or the better understanding of an assistant was +subconsciously asserting itself, and it was to Rose as though she were +listening to the outpouring of a fountain of knowledge, whose waters +engulfed her mind and made it gasp, yet carried her along with them. It +was all a dream, a weird, impossible nightmare to her; the familiar room +began to assume a strange aspect, and the man's words came to her as do +those heard in a sleeping vision--real, yet tinctured with unreality. + +"In this case the elastic tourniquet will stop the blood flow as +effectively as the Heidenhain backstitch suture method, I think, Miss +Merriman, and it will be much simpler. I'm glad I brought it. Have you +the saline solution, and the gauze head-covering ready?" + +"Yes, doctor." + +"Then you may administer the ether--use the drop method, and don't +forget to show her just how to regulate it. + +"No blood-pressure machine," he muttered. "Oh, well, we've just got to +trust to her being able to stand it, and ..." + +"And to God," whispered Rose. + +He glanced quickly up, as though he had already forgotten her presence, +and added, gently, "Of course." + +The small pad of gauze, which Miss Merriman laid over the baby's face, +grew moist; a strange, pungent odor began to fill the room. As she bent +over to watch intently what the nurse was doing, Rose suddenly found +herself beginning to get dizzy. + +"Stand up, Smiles," came the sharp command. "Here, hold this +handkerchief over your mouth and nose. Now, take the bottle yourself ... +so ... a drop on the pad ... now. Yes, that's right, just as Miss +Merriman has been doing. Little Lou is wholly unconscious, we must keep +her so. + +"Remember, now your test is beginning, and I expect you not to fail me. +A great deal depends on you, Rose. You are a soldier on the firing-line +now, and you are going to keep up, whatever happens. It may be for half +an hour, but you will keep up, for me, for Lou, whatever happens. +Remember! _Whatever happens!_" + +He looked fixedly into the unnaturally big eyes which were turned up to +his like two glorious flowers, and she nodded. With a pang of regret he +noticed how thin her face was, and how white,--so pale that the color +had fled even from the sweet, sensitive lips which smiled ever so +faintly at him, and then at the nurse, as the latter made the quiet +suggestion that she try to keep her eyes always fixed on the pad of +gauze, and not let them be drawn away from it if she could possibly help +it. + +But at first she could not, and so she saw the pitiful little head, +stripped of its golden crown, first covered with a clinging veil of wet +cloth, over which, from behind the ears to the top of the forehead, a +circular band of rubber tubing was adjusted and drawn tight into the +flesh--"to stop the blood, like I did for grandpappy when he cut his +arm," she thought. Then the head was gently raised and settled into +position on the sand-filled pillow, which cradled it firmly. + +Only the gurgling breath of the mercifully unconscious baby, and the +crackling of the fire, broke the silence as the surgeon adjusted and +posed his patient's head, as an artist would his model's. + +A piercing light flashed before the girl's eyes, and she saw that now +Miss Merriman held a strange-looking black tube, which shed a circle of +concentrated sunshine on the gauze-covered head. It was her first +experience with a flashlight, and she marvelled at its power. + +Now there came another dart of light, thin and fleeting, and she knew +that a knife was poised in mid-air. Involuntarily she closed her eyes +tight; a shudder ran through her. Donald's voice spoke impersonally, and +steadied her. + +"I shall expose the third left frontal convolution of the brain through +the fronto-parietal bone, and, in making the osteoplastic flap, I intend +to leave a wide working margin above the size of the opening which may +actually be necessary in order to reach the growth. It has got to be +fully exposed at once. I can't afford to delay, under the +circumstances." + +The gleam of the scalpel held her unwilling gaze with the fascination of +horror; she drew her breath with a sound between a shudder and a sigh as +it descended.... + +"I _must_ keep my eyes on the ether pad," came the command from her +whirling brain. + +Many nights thereafter, Rose was to start up from troubled sleep with +strange sounds and stranger words echoing in her brain--words like +"bevelled trephines," "Hudson forceps," "elevators," "Horsley's wax," +"rongeurs," "clips" and "sponges,"--but during the actual operation she +was scarcely conscious of them, and her principal feeling was one of +dumb rebellion which grew until she found herself almost hating _this_ +Donald, who could speak with such unconcern and apparent callousness, at +such a time. As well as she could, she willed her swimming gaze to +remain fixed on the pad which she must keep moist. The difficulty of the +task had suddenly become increased, for the pad seemed to become an +animate thing. Now it appeared to retreat into the distance, and again +it came floating back until it seemed about to smother her. There was a +droning note in her ears; the words spoken by the other two sounded +mixed and indistinct. + +Of only one sentence, repeated monotonously in Miss Merriman's clear +voice, was she really conscious. "Rose, a drop of ether ... a drop of +ether ... a drop of ether." + +She wanted to speak, to ask them if the room were not frightfully hot; +but she could not. + +Rose had never fainted in her life, but she had once seen a neighbor +swoon, and she realized vaguely that, as the minutes passed, her +consciousness was slowly slipping from her. The air was close and heavy +with strange smells. She felt as though she were swaying like a +pendulum. The old, familiar objects grew grotesquely large and hazy; the +deep shadows in the corners multiplied, and began to dance a solemn +minuet, advancing, retreating; advancing, retreating.... + +"Another drop of ether." + +She took a fresh mental grasp on herself, and held Duty, like a visible +thing, before her eyes. + +Again that queer, far-away voice. + +"Look, Miss Merriman. Can you see that neoplasm under the membrane? Ah +... now the flat dissector ... no, the blunter one ..." + +The voice trailed away into nothing, and another recalled her failing +senses, with the battle cry: + +"Rose, another drop of ether." + +Then it began again, "Thank heaven, there is no infiltration, the growth +is well localized and encapsulated. Steady, steady.... Ah, very pretty." + +The word caught her flickering thoughts, and angered her. How could any +one use it about anything so awful? + +There was another misty moment. Then, "The operation is, in itself, a +success, I think.... Now if the child's vitality ... I never did a +better one ... another sponge ... excellent ... Are the sutures +ready?... Quick, take the ether bottle, Miss Merriman!" + +Suddenly the girl felt a painful grasp on her arm. Some one was shaking +her roughly. + +"Rose," came the same strange voice, "we need some more wood for the +fire. Go out to the woodpile, and get some." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +VICARIOUS ATONEMENT + + +In happy ignorance of the fact that the order had been given merely to +get her outside, Smiles stumbled to the door with blind thankfulness, +and, as soon as she had closed it behind her, crumpled up in an +unconscious heap on the snow. + +Within doors, the nurse was saying, "I think she's fainted, doctor. I +heard her fall." + +"Probably," was the callous response. "Don't worry about her, the cold +will bring her around. We've got to get these sutures in. But, say, +hasn't she been a brick?" + +Donald's prophecy was correct. Rose came to her senses a moment later, +and, trembling and sobbing uncontrolledly, stumbled through the darkness +to the woodpile, and sat down on it. For a time she was powerless to +move, but when, at length, she did re-enter the cabin, with an armful of +wood, although her face was drawn and white, her self-control was fully +restored. + +Already the surgeon and nurse were bathing off the sewn wound with +antiseptic fluid, and it was not long before the little injured head was +wrapped in the swathing bandages which covered it completely, down to +the deathlike, sunken cheeks. + +The period of coming out from under the merciful anaesthesia ended, the +drooping flower was restored to its freshly made bed, the evidences of +what had occurred removed, and then Smiles turned to her beloved friend +with a pleading, unspoken question in her eyes. + +"I can't tell you yet, dear. I have ... all of us have done our mortal +best and now the issues are in higher hands than ours. I hope ... But +come, tell me, Rose, what made you feel so sure that the trouble _was_ a +tumor on the brain. Was it merely a guess, based on what I had explained +to you?" + +"No. I ... I just _knew_ it. I reckon that God told me so," was her +reply. + +"Well, God was certainly right, then," smiled Donald, glad of any chance +to relieve the tension. "Do you want to see the growth? See, it is as +large, nearly, as a walnut. Do you wonder that, with this thing pressing +more and more into her brain, Lou was robbed of her power to talk and +act?" + +The girl broke down at last and wept hysterically, which caused Donald +to look as uneasy as any mere man is bound to in such a circumstance; +but Miss Merriman came to his rescue with comforting arms, and the +words, "There, there, dear. Cry all you want to now. It's all over, and +Dr. MacDonald will tell you that if she gets well--as we believe that +she will--little Lou will be as healthy and happy a baby as she ever +was in her life. He's taken out that wicked growth, kernel and all, and +it will never come back again. Will it, doctor?" + +"Almost certainly not. Rose, we couldn't have done without you to-night. +You have been the brave little soldier that I told you to be; but I'm +afraid that it has been a terrible strain for you. Of course, it was an +exceptional operation, rare and dangerous; but it has given you a pretty +vivid idea of what trained nurses have to go through frequently. Has it +changed your mind? Do you still think that you want to go ahead and give +your life to such work?" + +"Would you ask a real soldier if he wanted to quit, or keep on fighting, +after he had been in one battle, and seen men killed and wounded? It's +got to be done, hasn't it, if the poor sick babies and grown-up people +are to be made strong and well again? And I've just _got_ to help do it, +Donald." + +He gave Miss Merriman a significant look; but his only response was, +"Well, unless you want another job--that of bringing back to life people +who have starved to death--you had better get us a bite to eat and some +of your strong coffee. My internal anatomy ..." + +"Oh, I plumb forgot. You haven't had a thing to eat--nor poor +granddaddy, either. I'm so ashamed I could _die_." + + * * * * * + +Two hours later, after she had finished making the old man as +comfortable as possible for the night, Rose rejoined the other two in +the main cabin. She came just in time to catch Donald in the act of +half-heartedly trying to conceal a deep yawn. + +As he, in turn, caught sight of her sympathetic smile, he said, "We have +given our patient a mild sleep inducer; and now, Rose, I want you to go +up into my loft room right away, and get a long night's sleep yourself. +You've been under a mighty heavy strain to-day; there are many other +hard days coming, and we can't have another patient on our hands." + +The girl nodded, sleepily; but she had not taken one weary step before a +different thought struck her, and she turned back to cry, contritely, +"But you ... and Miss Merriman. There won't be any place for you to +sleep, or for her either. Oh, what can we do?" + +"Just forget about us, my child. I shan't undress to-night, anyway, and +can roll myself in my big fur coat and camp out in your little room, +since Lou must stay out here where it is warmer. And as for Miss +Merriman ... if I catch her so much as closing her eyes for one minute, +to-night, I'll wring her neck." + +The nurse laughed; but Smiles' lips set, purposefully. "I forgot again. +Of course some one has got to sit up with little Lou, and I'll do it. +Why, Donald, poor Miss Merriman has been traveling and working all day +long, and she's just tired to death--she must be. Of course she has got +to get some rest. You go right up into the loft room, dear ..." and she +began to push the nurse gently toward the ladder. + +"Rose," cut in the doctor, sternly, although his eyes held a pleased +twinkle, "you're apparently forgetting one thing--that I'm boss here for +the present, and that my nurses must learn to do as they are told, +without arguing. I'm sorry for Miss Merriman, too; but she knows just +what to do if anything happens, and you don't--yet. Besides, it won't be +the first time that she has stayed up twenty-four hours at a stretch, +will it?" + +"No, indeed--nor forty-eight," answered the nurse, as she smoothed the +pillow under the little patient's head. "I shall want you fresh and +strong to help me with the 'day shift,' Smiles dear. And, as the doctor +says, orders are orders." + +The girl's tired eyes suddenly filled again, this time, with hurt, +rebellious tears, and a pout, almost like a child's, appeared on her +lips as she turned and moved slowly toward the ladder in the far corner. +Donald watched her with sympathetic understanding and the thought, "She +must think me a brute"; but, before he could speak the word of +consolation which was on his tongue, she whirled about, just as she had +when sent to bed on the first night of their acquaintance, and running +back, threw herself into his arms. As she clung to him passionately, +sobbing without restraint from weariness and the break in the tension +which had kept her up for so long, she whispered, "Oh, I love you so, +dear Don. You have been so good, so good to me, and I'm so very happy." + +"Well, well," answered the man huskily, as he patted her shoulder, "you +certainly have a funny way of showing it; but, after all, women are +queer creatures. I'm happy, too, dear--happy to be here and to have been +able to help you. And now," he concluded, lightly, "my happiness will be +complete if you will just let me see that sunny smile on your face, as +you obey that order which I have had to give you three times already." + +The tired girl, for the moment more child than woman, leaned back in his +arms and looked up at him with an expression so transcendently appealing +that it was only by the exercise of all his moral force that he was able +to restrain the impulse to crush her to him. He saw that the nurse was +regarding him with a peculiar expression, and as she, in turn, caught +his eye and turned hastily away with a little added color in her cheeks, +Donald recovered himself, lightly kissed the forehead so close to his +lips, and said, "Now for the fourth, and last, time, '_go to bed_.' +Good-night, little sister." + +This time Rose actually departed, and, after the physician had given +Miss Merriman a few final directions, and bidden her call him instantly, +if anything appeared to be going wrong, he said good-night to her also, +and stepped toward the little room which he was to occupy. On reaching +it he paused, for there had come a low, uncertain knock on the cabin +door. + +Lest it be repeated more loudly, and disturb the quiet into which the +room had finally settled, Donald forestalled the nurse's act, hurried +softly to the door, and opened it a few inches. + +He started. There, leaning dejectedly against one of the pronged cedar +posts on the tiny stoop, was a spectre figure, ghastly of +countenance--Judd's. The doctor read in it the awful anguish of +uncertainty which had driven the mountaineer, against his will, back to +the cabin which held for him either hope or blank despair--and the man +he hated. + +Donald slipped outside, and closed the door softly behind him. He +touched the inert form on the shoulder, and said in an undertone, "Come +with me away from the house, Judd." + +The other followed him, with dragging feet and sagging shoulders, his +obedience being like that of a whipped dog. As he reached the rock +before the gnarled oak, which, in happier days, had been the target for +Big Jerry's first practice shot with the rifle that was later to play a +part in the tragedy of Mike's death, Donald stopped and faced the man +who had sworn himself his mortal enemy. The sight of the rock had +re-awakened bitter memories; but they perished still-born as his gaze +turned on the dimly seen figure beside him. + +"Judd," he began, almost kindly, "you know why I came here this time?" + +The other made an indistinct sound of assent. + +"I ... I operated on your little sister's brain, to-night. Wait. It was +absolutely necessary, if she were to have even a single chance for life. +She was dying, Judd. The operation was a desperate one--a last resort. I +can't promise you anything certainly, but she's still alive, and I +honestly believe that she is going to live--and get well." + +For an instant the listener stood motionless. Then his pent-up emotions +broke their bounds in one deep, shuddering breath, and he sank down +beside the boulder, flung his tensed arms across it, and buried his face +on them. + +At last he spoke, hoarsely, and without raising his head. "I done my +damnedest ter kill ye, an' now yo' ... yo' saves Lou's life fer me. I +reckon I don't know how ter thank ye, er repay ... but ... my life air +yourn ter take hit, ef yo' likes." + +"Nonsense," was the sharp response. "And as for thanks, why I don't want +any. I did it for Smiles' sake." + +The kneeling body quivered once; but, when the answer came, it was +uttered in even tones. "Yes, I reckoned so. Yo' hev the right ter do +things fer her, an' I ... I haint. She ... she warnt fer me ... never. I +warnt never worthy uv her." + +"She isn't for me, either," said Donald. "And besides, I'm no more +worthy of her than you, Judd. I should have told you long ago--I was a +fool not to have done so--I'm going to marry another girl,--a girl at +home whom I have known all my life." + +"Do Rose know hit?" came the mountaineer's quick, suspicious query. + +"Of course she does; she's known it for a year. Judd ..." he seated +himself beside the younger man. "I want to tell you that I was +altogether to blame for ... for what happened up there last summer. I +should have told you then, and ... and I'm sorry." + +"No, hit war I who war ter blame." + +"Well, let's both try to forget it, now. You owe me nothing for +to-night; but you owe Rose a debt of gratitude that you can never hope +to pay in full, my boy." + +"I knows hit. I kaint never pay even part uv hit." + +"I think that you can." + +"How kin I?" + +"I don't pretend to be much of a preacher, but I can say this as a man, +Judd. By trying to live the kind of a life she would have you live. She +wants to be your friend." + +"I haint fit ter be named friend uv her'n, after what I done," he +replied, dully. + +"But _we're_ going to forget all about that, and certainly she won't +hold it against you, lad. I heard your Mr. Talmadge talking about ... +about religious things, once, and I think that, if he were here now, he +would tell you that Smiles and little Lou, together, have made what ... +what the Bible calls 'atonement' for what ... for what you did. Smiles' +love and your baby sister's suffering have brought us together; each has +had a chance to realize and confess that he was wrong and had been +wicked; and now the way is clear for us to be ... friends. At least I'm +willing, if you are, to shake on that." + +Judd sprang to his feet, and his lean hand shot out to grasp the one +which Donald held out to him in the darkness. And their firm clasp was a +seal to the bond that the quarrel between them was ended for all time. + +"Rose will be glad, Judd. I can't let you see Lou to-night; but come +to-morrow morning ... come early before I leave, and we'll tell them all +about it, and start things all over again. Good-night, my boy," said +Donald, heartily. + +And there was a new light on the face of each man, as one returned to +Jerry's cabin, and the other strode, with restored hope, to his own +abode, which had been once so cheerless. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +TWO LETTERS + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + THE FIRST + + Big Jerry's Cabin, + January 15, 1914. + +My dear Dr. MacDonald, + +Although this is theoretically only my semi-weekly report, made in +accordance with your instructions, I feel in the letter-writing mood, +for a wonder, so I _may_ overstep professional bounds, and become +loquacious--if one can do that with pen and ink. + +Rose talks about you so continually that I am actually myself beginning +to regard you as an intimate friend, instead of an austere and somewhat +awe-inspiring "boss." I should probably not be brave enough to say that +to your face; but I find that my courage rises in adverse ratio to my +nearness to you. + +First, however, for my report. The little patient is still convalescing +in a highly satisfactory manner, and with a rapidity which speaks +volumes both for her own strong constitution and this mountain as a +health resort. + +The wound remains perfectly healthy and is healing without suppuration +or parting--which "speaks volumes" for your skill. I am quite certain +that the scar will be merely a thin white line, and not in the least a +disfigurement. The silk stitches are ready to be removed and the others +nearly dissolved. + +Yesterday that funny, countrified doctor, from down in the village, came +up to see her--fame of your operation having spread. He "reckoned" that +the child's recovery was nothing less than a miracle, and that he takes +his hat off to you. I told him that most physicians did. + +He also "allowed" that, if I wanted him to take out the stitches, he +could do it, but I "reckoned" that I could attend to that a little +better than he. Was that _lese majeste_? + +I did my best to be very humble, and said, "Yes, doctor" constantly, and +he tried to appear very professional; but I think he stood a little in +awe of me. You don't know how I enjoyed the feeling. + +But, to return to our report. Lou is gaining strength rapidly; I let her +get up and play about longer each day, and have reduced the bandages to +the minimum. It was most affecting when they were removed from her eyes. +I forgot that I was a nurse, and cried with Smiles until the child +cried, too, without having the slightest idea why. She is such a sweet, +merry little imp that I do not wonder that you felt more than mere +professional interest in her case. Every one here loves her. + +Indeed, I am enchanted with the place and people, and have made up my +mind to stay on a week or ten days after I call myself off the case, and +take a vacation which I really owe to myself. + +Poor Big Jerry is wonderful--so pathetically patient under his +suffering, which is now acute. I am afraid that he cannot last many +weeks longer, and, more than once, I have had to give him a hypodermic +to deaden his pain. Somehow he reminds me of a huge forest tree that has +been struck and shattered by a lightning bolt. + +Then there is Judd. Rose says that he has been very, very wicked; but +that only adds to his fascination in my eyes, and if he should decide +some day to snatch me up and carry me off bodily to a cave, I don't +think that I should struggle or scream _very_ hard. However, I'm afraid +there is no chance of that, as he apparently doesn't know that I exist. + +He puts me in mind of a mountain eagle, with those overhanging brows and +piercing, coal-black eyes of his; but I must admit that he is +disappointingly tame when he looks at Smiles--as he does most of the +time, to my furious jealousy. Alas, the eagle then becomes a sucking +dove. _She_ is apparently oblivious to the obvious fact that he is madly +in love with her. Poor Judd! + +Last, but by no means least, there is Smiles herself. I wish that I +could adequately express my thoughts about her, but I can't. However, I +no longer wonder how a mountain child like that could have captivated +you so, as I did when you first described her to me. + +She is adorable. For the life of me I can't understand how a girl, bred +in this wilderness, could have such a fine soul and personality--not to +speak of her intellect, which daily startles me more. But, of course, +she is of cultured stock--she _must_ be--and I have always believed that +the forces of heredity are paramount to those of environment. Do I sound +like a school-mar'm? Well, that is what I am. + +It may surprise you to learn, as much as it does me to realize, that I +have turned back to schooldays with an enthusiasm which I never felt +when I was going through them, and that I spend more time as a teacher +than as a nurse. Smiles simply _absorbs_ education--I never knew +anything like it--and I am as confident as she that her dream of going +through the "C. H." and becoming a trained nurse, will come to pass. And +won't she make a wonderful one? Be warned that when she _does_ go north +I intend to dispute with you the right to regard her as a protege. + +I couldn't love her as I do, already, if she were not so completely +human, and it amuses me immensely the way she wheedles the natives and +keeps them in good humor by using that comical mountain lingo--although +she can speak as grammatically as any one, when she wants to. She just +smiles at one of them, and says, "Now haint thet jest _toe_ sweet of +ye," and they fall down and worship. + +Don't be surprised if you hear me say some day, "Wall, doctor, thet air +shor' er powerful preety operation, an' I air plumb obleeged ter ye fer +thet yo' let me holp ye with hit." I'm catching it, too. + +I hope that you will forgive the liberties which I have taken in writing +like this, but I had to do it. + + Sincerely yours, + Gertrude Merriman. + +P.S. You were right in your conjecture. Since you would not accept the +whole, or any part of Smiles' precious savings--and your refusal nearly +broke her heart until I made her understand that physicians never +charged _members of their family_--she wanted me to take it. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + THE SECOND + + Webb's Gap, + Jan. 22, 1914 + +Dearest Doctor Mac, + +My heart is broken. Dear granddaddy died last night. Of course I know +that it had to be, and that he is so much happier now in the spirit +body, and with Ma Webb (he talked about her all yesterday, and I really +think that his soul was speaking with hers); but he was so dear to me +that I can hardly bear to think that he has gone away. + +Wasn't he a splendid man, Don? I am sure that there could not have been +any better, nobler men, even in the city, and I know that you loved him, +too. + +Before he died he told me all the wonderful things that he had done for +me, although I did not deserve it--how he had left me all that money and +made you my guardian. I am so glad for that. + +He was in terrible pain toward the end, and I don't know what I should +have done without dear Miss Merriman who stayed on purpose to help me. I +think that God sent her here special. And she has helped me in so many +other ways too--especially with my studying. She is sure that I will be +able to pass that awful examination, although it frightens me. Oh, if I +_can_, I can take that hospital training and be a nurse at last, for I +am rich now. Just think, dear granddaddy left me _more than a thousand +dollars_--and I have my basket money, besides! + +And so, dear Donald, the first part of my great dream is really coming +true. It isn't just the way I dreamed it, for I didn't mean for +granddaddy to be dead; but I guess things never happen just as we plan. +When we look forward to something pleasant, which we want very much to +happen, we never think that there may be unhappiness mixed with +it--perhaps it is better that way, for if we did we wouldn't work so +hard to make it come to pass. + +I am afraid that I have not said that very well; but I feel that it is +so, now. I am going to Boston; I will be near you, and will learn to do +the work I love; but now I realize that I could never, never have done +it until granddaddy went away. So that is the shadow on my golden dream. + +And last night there came the great sorrow that I have been dreading so +many months; and yet I know that he is happier, and I have you and Miss +Merriman, and the work I am going to do, to make me forget--not him, but +my sorrow--and take the pain from my heart. + +Little Lou is almost well again, and both she and Judd are going to stay +with Mrs. Andrews the rest of the winter. And, oh, Doctor Mac, he has +promised me never to make white liquor again. + +I have saved the best news for the last. _Miss Merriman is going to take +me to Boston with her._ She says that her family have taken an apartment +in the city, and that I may live with them until I get into the +hospital. This makes me very happy, and I hope that you will be pleased, +too. + +I know that everything is going to be very different there in Boston, +and that you are so busy that I cannot see you very often, and, besides, +when I do get into the hospital I must be careful to remember that you +are a very great doctor and I am only one of many probationers (Miss +Merriman told me the word). But, although we cannot be chums like we +have been, you must never forget that I am always + + Your loving foster-sister, + Smiles. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NEW SCENES, NEW FRIENDS + + +So another leaf was turned in the Book of Fate, and Smiles' life +underwent another metamorphosis as complete as the one fifteen years +previous. + +There was a sudden severance of all old ties, save that of memory, an +abrupt entrance into a new existence, so utterly different from the one +that she had known that it could scarcely have seemed stranger to her if +she had actually been translated into another sphere. + +Yet that same Fate, which had tried her heart in its crucible fires, and +found its gold as unalloyed as her smile, now smiled, in turn, and Rose +was deeply appreciative of that fact. She knew that in Gertrude Merriman +she had found a friend who was a blessed comforter for her in her days +of trial; in truth, the nurse was destined to be more than that, a wise +counsellor as well. Herself a girl of breeding, a college graduate, and +a product of the same mill through which the mountain child had set her +heart and fixed her mind upon going, she would be able to smooth many a +rough spot from that path which Donald had pictured in his allegory, +draw the thorns from many a bramble. + +For the first time Rose parted from the friends whom she had known +practically all her life, and from the rugged, picturesque mountain +which had been home to her, and turned her face toward a new life. Like +a child venturing into the fairyland of dreams, she journeyed with her +companion through the teeming cities of the East, Miss Merriman so +arranging it that they should spend a day in each, for--with wisdom born +of experience--she realized that such travel was in itself a broadening +education, and that, moreover, in the new wonders and new delights which +each hour held, Smiles' grief would find its best assuagement. + +There was another reason in Miss Merriman's mind for making the trip a +leisurely one. She knew that the girl was as far from being ready to +step into the new existence, without material readjustment in her +manners, as she was already mentally removed from the old. To be sure, +she possessed a natural grace of manner which could not but charm any +one who met her; but she was almost as free from external conventions as +one of her own wild birds, except for the few which she had +unconsciously acquired by her association with the older woman, and with +Donald; and, in her love for, and pride in, her protege, Miss Merriman +wanted Rose to be able to fit, without embarrassment, into whatever +company she might find herself. + +Hers was a comparatively easy task, for Smiles took to "manners" as +readily as a chameleon adapts its exterior to suit the color of its +surroundings. In the woods she had learned to mimic the note of the +birds or the chattering of the squirrels; in the hotel dining-room she +copied the behavior of her companion just as faithfully, and if, on +occasion, she found herself perplexed as to the proper use of some +strange implement of eating, she frankly, and without a thought of +embarrassment, sought information on the subject. People regarded her +with open amusement, sometimes; but more often their gaze spelt +admiration, and Rose was happily unconscious of both kinds of glances. + +Furthermore, in obedience to instructions from Donald, contained in a +special delivery letter which reached her just before they started +North, and in which he purported to be speaking and acting as the +child's guardian _ipso facto_, Miss Merriman fitted her charge out with +a simple, but complete, wardrobe, to Smiles' never-failing surprise and +delight that so many pretty things should be all her own. + +When the two were ready to leave the metropolis--whose size, splendor +and feverish bustle left Smiles mentally gasping--the nurse sent a +telegram to Donald, and one raw February evening found him impatiently +pacing the South Terminal Station, awaiting the arrival of the train +from New York. + +Six months before, the prospect of some day being Smiles' guardian had +seemed vaguely pleasant. Now it was an immediate fact, and the +responsibilities engendered, the possible difficulties attendant on it, +lay heavily upon his mind. He, too, thanked Heaven for Miss Merriman. + +The train gates were opened at last, and Donald hastened down the long +platform, his eyes searching eagerly for those whom he sought. They fell +first upon the nurse, just descending the steps, then turned and stayed +upon the graceful, slender figure which followed her. Was it really +Rose? Could that young woman, clad in a simple black traveling dress +and long coat which, even to his masculine perception, appeared modishly +stylish and amazingly becoming, be the mountain child whom his memory +clothed in homemade calico? Her face was unwontedly pale beneath the +small, close-fitting black hat, yet it was so utterly sweet that Donald +felt his pulses start again with the old strange thrill. + +If his mind harbored any idea that she might run into his embrace, it +was doomed to disappointment, for, with the habiliments of city +civilization, Smiles had acquired its reserve. Her greeting was a very +demure and somewhat weary one,--it both pleased and irritated him, +somehow. Indeed, she spoke scarcely a word, and it was not until they +had finished dinner in the quiet, homelike hotel, whither Donald had +taken them, that her new shyness began to yield to his presence. Then +the story of the marvels which her eyes had beheld came pouring forth +with all the old-time childlike eagerness. + +When they were nearly ready to leave, Miss Merriman said, with a half +real, half assumed show of firmness, "Now, Doctor MacDonald, since I am +off duty I can speak my mind plainly, and I mean to. I know that you are +Smiles' guardian; but you can't have her. She's mine, and she's going to +live with my family until she enters the hospital. So there." + +Donald breathed a mental sigh of relief, and responded, laughingly, "And +I, apparently, haven't anything to say about it! Oh, very well. I've +lived long enough to learn that there is no use arguing with a woman, so +I yield gracefully, although I'm afraid that it is establishing a bad +precedent. If I begin to take orders from you like this, it is going to +be hard to put you back in your place and to act the role of stern +superior myself. I warn you, though, that I mean to get even with you on +our next case, so prepare yourself to be bullied frightfully. + +"You see what a horrible disposition I really have, little sister," he +added, smiling at Rose, who informed him that she was not in the least +frightened, and to prove it, slipped her hand into his for a moment with +the childlike confidence that he loved. + +So it was arranged; a taxicab bore them to the homey little apartment in +the Fenway, where Smiles was taken to Mrs. Merriman's maternal bosom, +and, after humbly begging his ward from them for the next afternoon, +when he meant to introduce her to his family, Donald departed, +whistling. + +Tired, but strangely contented, Rose was at last shown to her dainty +pink and white bedroom, with its inviting brass bed, beside which she +knelt for a long time in thankful prayer. Nor was it strange, perhaps, +that her pillow was moist with tears of gratitude and happiness before +she fell asleep. + +Smiles awoke early. The air in the room was very cold, but during her +trip northward she had learned the mysteries of steam radiators, and she +sprang up, closed the windows, and turned on the heat with a little +silent laugh as her thoughts travelled back to the rude cabin on the +mountain. In memory she saw herself crawl shiveringly from her bed, in +the cold gray of a Winter daybreak, clad only in a plain nightgown, to +build a blaze in the big stone fireplace so that the room might be warm +for Big Jerry when he awoke. The smile faded from her lips, and they +trembled slightly as she whispered his name. Poor grandpap, he had +suffered sadly from the cold during those last few months when he could +not keep the circulation up in his massive body by accustomed exercise. + +Below her lay the still sleeping city. Snow covered the untenanted +portions of the Fens, and hid its ugly nakedness with a soft mantle, +which seemed to hold a silken sheen, as the first flush of morning +touched it. How strange all her surroundings appeared. Gone was the far +sweeping expanse of forest-clad mountain side, stretching off to the +sunrise; in its place lay a level space closed in by substantial +buildings of marble, granite and brick--the Art Museum, Latin School and +clustered hospitals,--their walls changing from ghostly gray to growing +rose and gold. She drew a comfortable dressing gown--the gift of her new +friend--about her girlish form, and sat down by the window in the +familiar posture with her chin on her cupped hands. By Miss Merriman's +description of the view which the window gave upon she recognized the +creamy brick building of the Children's Hospital, snuggled like a gentle +sister by the side of the impressive marble walls of its big brother, +the Harvard Medical School, and, as the light grew and gave definition +to its outlines, she felt as though it were actually drawing nearer to +her. In imagination she went to meet it; she entered its doors and took +her place among those who toiled there with loving hearts and skillful +hands; and thus Miss Merriman found her, half an hour later, when she, +similarly clad, came to bid her little guest good morning. With silent +understanding, which is born of true companionship, she drew the girl +into her arms. + +"I'm not going to let you do a single thing but rest this morning," she +said at length. "You look pale and tired still--like a very white +rose--and I want you to appear your very sweetest when you go to meet +Dr. MacDonald's family this afternoon, dear. Come, let's decide what you +shall wear. The black silk that we bought in New York?" + +Smiles hesitated. "I think that ... would it be all right if I wore that +pretty white woollen one?" + +"Why, yes, if you like, but it is very plain and simple." + +"And so am I," laughed Rose a bit unsteadily. "I want them to see me +just as I am, and ... Oh, how I hope that they will like me!" + +"Never fear. They will," answered Miss Merriman, giving her a reassuring +kiss. + +Nevertheless, it was a very quiet and timid Smiles who sat beside Donald +in his coupe at four that afternoon, as he drove to the richly sombre +home on Beacon Street, where had dwelt many generations of Thayers. He, +too, although he attempted to be jovial, was strangely uneasy. + +"You chump!" he said to himself. "You're more disturbed about whether +this child will make a good impression, than you would be over +performing a major operation. Supposing that Ethel _doesn't_ go wild +about her, what of it?" + +A trim maid ushered them into the drawing room, where softly shaded +lights were already burning, for the afternoon was dull and gray, and +they gave a mellow homelike appearance to the mahogany furniture, rich +tapestries, oriental rugs and costly paintings. Ethel, Mr. MacDonald, +Senior, and little Muriel were in the room when Donald entered with the +girl's slim hand held tightly in his, for she had slipped it there +impulsively, just as he stepped through the broad doorway. + +"This," he said simply, "is Smiles." + +They all arose, and Ethel stepped quickly forward with outstretched +hands. She had told herself that she meant to be very kind to the little +savage to whom her brother had taken such an astonishing fancy; but +now, something in the slender form and the half-frightened expression in +the pale, sweet face caused her to forget everything else except that +the stranger was alone and ill at ease. Both her arms went out to Rose +with a motherly gesture, and, as she drew her within them, she said, +"Why, my dear child." + +"Yes, she _is_ a child," broke in Muriel, eagerly seizing one of Smiles' +hands. "I thought that she was a grown-up woman; but see, she wears her +hair down on her neck just like a school girl." + +Let it be said that Miss Merriman had caught the note struck by Rose +that morning, and had arrayed her to appear as young and simple as +possible. + +"A child? Of course she is," echoed Mr. MacDonald in a hearty voice. "My +dear, Donald has told us so much about you that I feel almost as though +I had known you all your life. But," he added with little wrinkles +forming at the corners of his kindly gray eyes, "I would like to have +seen you, as my son did first, in that one-piece calico dress. He +described the picture that you made very graphically." + +"Oh, look, mother. She's going to _smile_. Remember how pretty Uncle Don +told us she looked when ..." + +Rose's shyly budding smile changed to silvery laughter in which all the +rest joined, and with it was sealed the bond of an enduring friendship. +Then baby Don was brought down from the nursery for inspection and, +before he had been contentedly curled in the newcomer's arms many +minutes, he was actually trying to lisp "Mileth," which Ethel proudly +pronounced to be the first articulate word in his vocabulary, if those +universal sounds, which doting parents have ever taken to mean Mother +and Father, be excepted. He liked it so well that he insisted upon +repeating it over and over, with eyes screwed up tight and mouth opened +very wide, which gave him so comical an expression that every one +laughed, including himself. + +Manlike, Donald had planned to get all the meetings over with at once, +and had asked his sister to invite Marion in for afternoon tea and to +meet his "protege and prodigy"--as Ethel had phrased it in her +invitation. He had, however, purposely refrained from mentioning the +fact to Rose, and when Miss Treville entered, stately as a goddess, very +beautiful and a trifle condescending in manner, as she extended her +white-gloved hand and said, "So this is little Rose," the girl felt a +sudden chill succeed the warmth of hospitality which had served to +banish all her timid reserve, had brought a glow of happy color to her +cheeks and a sparkle to her luminous eyes, and had made her as wholly +natural as she would have been at home among her simple neighbors of the +mountains. + +Donald felt the psychological change, and sensed the reason for it; but +although, in a clumsy manner, he did his best to restore the atmosphere +of comradeship, he knew that he was failing. Marion also tried, and +tried sincerely, to bring Rose into the conversation; but the girl had +become embarrassed and silent, and to her own surprise the society woman +vaguely realized that she, too, was embarrassed and not at her best. She +tried to shake off the feeling with the thought that it was absurd that +one who had been at ease in the presence of royalty should feel so in +that of a simple mountain girl; but she could not wholly banish the +feeling or the impression that the girl's deep, unusual eyes were +looking down beneath the surface, which she knew was perfectly +appointed--had she not, for no reason at all she told herself, taken +special pains in dressing?--and that, although there was something of +awed admiration in her frank gaze, it also held a suggestion of +something which was not entirely approval. Donald felt it, too, and it +irritated him; so much so that he was frankly glad when his fiancee +announced that she must depart to attend a social engagement. Perhaps it +was because he was ashamed of such a feeling that he kissed her with +unusual warmth, as he handed her into the waiting motor car, and he +found himself flushing deeply, without reason, when he returned to the +drawing room and saw Rose standing by one of the windows, looking out at +the departing limousine with its two liveried attendants. + +"She is very beautiful," the girl whispered to him, as he joined her. + +There was another guest that afternoon, who came in, unexpectedly--a +young man, in appearance Donald's antithesis, for, although he was of +more than medium height, he was slender and almost as graceful as a +woman. Wavy light hair crowned a merry, boyish face which, with its +remarkably blue eyes, was almost too good looking for a man, although +saved from a hint of weakness by a firm, well-rounded chin. + +"Called at your office and learned that you were loafing on the job +again, and that I might find you up here, visiting a baby--for a +change," he ran on, as he entered after the manner of one who feels +himself perfectly at home. Then he caught sight of Rose, blushed like a +girl himself and stammered, "Oh, I beg pardon. I didn't know that I was +..." + +"You're not," laughed Donald, seizing the newcomer's hand with a +vicelike grasp. "Come in. I've told you about my little mountain rose, +and now is your chance to meet her, for here she is. Smiles, this is my +closest friend and associate, Dr. Philip Bentley--the man who steps into +my shoes when I am summarily ordered to board the next train for the +Cumberland Mountains, or elsewhere." + +"Who steps into his practice, perhaps, but not into his shoes, Miss +Rose," added the other. "I could not fill _them_, figuratively or +physically." + +"Go ahead, make all the fun of me that you like," answered Donald. "I'm +not ashamed of having a broad understanding." + +"You would not think Dr. Donald's boots large if you could have seen my +Granddaddy's," interposed Smiles, pretending to think that reflection +was being cast upon her idol. "I could get _both_ my feet inside one of +them--really I could." + +"I don't wonder," answered Philip with a return to seriousness. And the +girl hastily tucked her diminutive shoes underneath her chair, as she +saw the man's gaze fastened upon them. + +For nearly an hour she lived in unaccustomed delight, as she listened to +the merry badinage of this group of educated city dwellers and, although +it was something new to her, her quick mind soon realized that Philip +was a most entertaining conversationalist, with a wit like a rapier +which flashed and touched, but never hurt, and that Donald, in his +slower way, possessed a dry humor which she had not suspected. At the +end of that time a telephone call came for Donald which sent him forth, +pretending to grumble over the lack of consideration of modern children, +who insisted upon getting sick at the most inconvenient times, and of +their parents, who permitted it. + +"Your loss, my gain," chuckled Philip. "I'll be only too pleased to take +Miss Rose home." + +"Indeed, I'll not allow such a thing," promptly responded Ethel. "Rose +stays here for dinner, and _you're_ not invited. This is to be strictly +a family party." + +"'Family?' Is Don going to be a Mormon, then?" challenged Philip. + +It was Rose, who--blushing prettily--answered, "I hope not, for he is +my brother, too, by blood adoption." And she told the story. + +"Then why can't _I_ be? I'm ready, nay, anxious, to shed quarts and +quarts of blood to attain a like relationship," persisted Philip. And +thus the conversation ran on through dinner, for Ethel relented and +allowed Dr. Bentley to remain, and, as Donald was again summoned away, +it was he who, after all, took Rose to the Merriman apartment. + +"Oh," she cried, in telling Gertrude all about it, "I think that it was +the happiest evening I ever spent, or it _would_ have been if Big Jerry +might only have been there, too." + +A slight suggestion of a smile passed over the face of the older woman +as she pictured the mountaineer in a Beacon Street drawing room. Rose +saw, and interpreted it. + +"Grandpap would not have been out of place there, or in a king's palace. +He _was_ a king, Miss Merriman." + +"Yes, dear, he truly was," the other responded seriously. + +There was a pause. + +"Isn't Dr. Bentley nice," said Smiles, softly. "He must be splendid, for +Dr. Donald likes him a lot." + +"He likes _you_ a lot, too! My, aren't we vain?" smiled Gertrude. + +"Oh, I didn't think how that was going to sound!" + +Rose's distress was real and the other hastened to say, "Yes, Dr. +Bentley is splendid. We used to call them 'David and Jonathan,' for +they were always together, and, before Dr. McDonald become engaged, we +said that neither would ever marry, since they couldn't marry each +other. Now I suppose that Dr. Bentley will be looking around for +consolation. Perhaps...." + +"Don't be silly," laughed Smiles. But she became suddenly silent again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE FIRST MILESTONE + + +Three months sped by and were gone like a dream. + +Day after day, until should come that longed-for, yet dreaded test, Rose +studied with a diligence that delighted the private tutor whom Donald, +through Miss Merriman, had secured for her--a young woman who found +herself astonished by her pupil's avidity in seeking knowledge. + +The passing days were not, however, wholly dedicated to the books which +held for Smiles the key to the citadel she sought to possess. + +Other doors and other hearts were open to her, and, because of her +simple charm, Donald's family welcomed her as a visitor whose every +advent in the city home seemed to bring a fresh breath from the hills +and open spaces. Little Muriel, who had loved her unseen, worshipped her +on sight, and Ethel, happy in Donald's betrothal to Marion Treville, +would have been glad to have had her with them far more often than she +would consent to come. + +Long walks she took, too, regardless of weather, swinging freely along +on voyages of discovery; losing herself often in Boston's impossible +streets, only to find her way back home with the instinct for direction +of one bred amid forests, trackless, save for infrequent blind and +tortuous paths. And soon the historic, homey city cast its strange spell +over her heart, and claimed her for its own. + +Spring came at last, not the verdant, glorious, festal virgin of the +Southland, but the hesitant, bashfully reserved maiden so typical of New +England, and Miss Merriman finally reported to Donald that their joint +protege seemed to be fairly prepared for the test which she had come so +far to take. + +There are no rules, born of reason, which cannot yield to reasonable +exceptions, and, although the entrance requirements of the training +school were as exacting as its course, and as strict as its standard, a +standard which had long since made it the peer of any in all America, +some of the purely technical ones were waived upon the request of the +idolized chief junior surgeon on the staff, for Donald went personally +to the Superintendent and explained the case to her, and she agreed to +allow Rose to take a special examination; but she shook her head when he +mentioned the girl's age. + +"Of course you know what the requirements are in that respect, doctor," +she said. "We make exceptions, yes; but, if she enters now, she will be +by far the youngest girl in the school. I think that, before I give you +my decision, I shall have to see and talk with her." + +Accordingly, that afternoon he took the rather frightened Smiles to the +Superintendent of nurses, and left them closeted together. + +"Dr. MacDonald has told me about you, and your ambition, Miss Webb," +said the Superintendent kindly. "You have been very courageous; but you +are very young, even younger than I thought. Now I want you to tell me +frankly just what your life has been, so that I may judge as to your +other qualifications, before deciding whether it is wise for you to take +the examinations." + +Rose began hesitatingly; but, as the other drew her out with +judicious questions, she told her story with simple directness, and, +before long, the Superintendent had come to a realization that the +little mountain girl--whose life had, for so long, been one of unusual +responsibilities--had already acquired an uncommon maturity of +judgment. Although she was still some eighteen months below the +prescribed age for entering, she received the other's hesitating +permission to make the essay. + +It would be difficult to decide who felt the greater nervousness during +the period of Smiles' written examination, and the time which had to +elapse before word came as to the result--Rose, Miss Merriman or Donald. +It was the last who heard first. The Superintendent invited him into her +office, as he was passing through the hospital corridor one day, and +said, "I am sure that you will be pleased to hear that Miss Webb has +passed her tests with flying colors, doctor." + +A warmth of pleasurable relief passed through Donald; but he managed to +reply formally, "I _am_ pleased; but I hope that you didn't ease up any +because of anything ... er ... on my account." + +"No, we didn't," was the response. "I'll admit that both your account of +what Miss Webb had done, and the girl herself, appealed to me so that I +was prepared to mark a bit leniently, if necessary; but it wasn't. I +really don't see how she managed to garner so much education in so short +a time." + +"'Where there's a will,'" quoted Donald, with inward satisfaction over +the fact that his ward had fulfilled his prophecy, and he stole a few +minutes out of the busy morning to motor to the Merrimans' apartment to +bear the joy-bringing tidings personally to little Rose, whose eyes +shone happily and whose lips smiled their thanks, but who--perversely, +it seemed to him--gave Miss Merriman the reward which he felt should +have been his. + +Dreams do come true sometimes, if they _are_ true, and so at last +arrived a bright May morning when Smiles folded away her little play +uniform forever, and--by right of conquest--donned the striped pink and +white gingham dress and bibless apron of a probationer, within the doors +of the newly built home of that old and worthy institution which had had +its inception, more than sixty years before, in the loving heart of +Nursing Sister Margaret. + +There Rose entered into a new life, as different from that of the old +physical freedom of the hills, and personal freedom from restraint, as +could well be imagined, for, as Donald had told her, she was now +mustered, as an untrained recruit, into a great modern army; and +discipline is the keynote in war, whether the battle be against evil +nations or evil forces. + +From half after six in the morning until ten at night, when with +military precision came "lights out," her life was drawn to pattern. It +was not a hardship for her, as with some others, to arise at the early +hour; and the brief prayer and singing of the morning hymn, in company +with her fifty-odd sister-probationers and pupil nurses, impressed her +strongly the first time in which she had part in it, and never failed to +strengthen and uplift her for the day's toil. Times were to come +aplenty, to be sure, when the old call of untrammelled freedom stirred +her senses to mute rebellion; but, as often, her all-absorbed interest +in the work silenced it speedily. + +Right at the outset Rose experienced the same shock which hundreds of +other would-be nurses have had. She, mistress of a home for years, was +obliged to learn to clean, to scrub, to make a bed! For two whole months +of probationary training she had to labor at the bedside or in the +classroom, doing the commonplace, practical tasks which, to many, seemed +merely unnecessary drudgery; but, if she occasionally felt that Donald's +prophecy was coming true with a vengeance, more often her level little +head held a prescient understanding of how important this unlovely +foundation was to the structure which should some day be built upon it. + +And, although the Superintendent said nothing to Smiles, she noted with +secret appreciation that her new pupil possessed, in addition to her +sustaining enthusiasm, a no less valuable thing--the innate ability to +use her hands by instinct and without clumsy conscious effort. Had not +this girl, who was scarcely more than a child in years, for a long time +been both a homemaker and an ever-ready nurse to all those who became +ill within the confines of the scattered mountain settlement? + +The second milestone was reached at last. Rose was one day summoned +alone into the Superintendent's sanctum, and the door was closed to all +others. A little later she came out with tears adding new lustre to her +shining eyes, for the talk had been very earnest and heart-searching; +but they were tears of happiness, for upon her gleaming curls now sat +the square pique cap which was the visible sign that she had safely +traversed the first stretch of the long, hard road. To be sure, she knew +well that even this, the so dearly desired cap and pale blue dress which +went with it, did not make her fully a pupil nurse, yet that afternoon +it seemed that life could never hold for her an honor more precious. + +The afternoon on which this momentous event occurred was one of liberty +for Rose, and she hastened with the news to her dear Miss Merriman, the +precious cap smuggled out under her coat; but, after they had rejoiced +together, and she had admired its reflection in the glass, she suddenly +became doleful, and wailed in mock despair, "Oh, doesn't it seem as +though I'd never, _never_ be a real nurse. Why, now I've got to _leave +the hospital_"--the tragedy in her tone almost caused her friend to +break into laughter--"and study all sorts of awful Latin things. She +opened a catalogue and read aloud, 'Physiology, bacteriology, +chemistry, dietetics,' and goodness knows what else over at Simmons +College, for _four whole months_. I shall simply die, I just know that I +shall!" + +Miss Merriman gently explained the necessity for each of them; but +wisely refrained from further frightening her by adding that a full +year's course was to be crowded into those sixteen weeks. + +In due time these, too, were over, the awe-inspiring examination passed, +and Smiles was accepted as worthy of a place among the pupil nurses. +Like an athlete she had finished her preliminary training, and was ready +for the long, gruelling race toward the goal, two and a half years +distant. + +Hard work though it was, Rose found all her days sunny ones, and only +one cloud partly obscured their brightness. Donald she saw on rare +occasions only, as the demands upon his time doubled and redoubled, and +of course their brief meetings at the hospital demanded strict formality +of intercourse. Deeply as he felt for her, he was a physician first, +last and all the time, and as uncompromising in his own ethics as he was +in his requirements of the nurses. + +Yet, if she saw him seldom, there was another whom she saw increasingly +often. Dr. Bentley's attitude towards Rose was also strictly +professional; but he never failed to bow and speak pleasantly when he +met her in the corridors or wards, and she instinctively felt that in +him she had found another real friend. + +Rose was too much a child of nature to be given to thinking much about +men; but there were minutes, just before sleep came at night, when her +mind would visualize Donald's strong, kindly face, which seemed to look +down at her with an expression almost fatherly, and she would whisper a +little prayer that she might help him as she had resolved to, that night +on the mountain top. And at such times another face, light, where his +was dark, came, not to supplant, but to supplement it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE CALL OF THE RED CROSS + + +Despite the enthralling interest of her new work and surroundings, it +seemed to Rose, during the year after she gained entrance to the temple +of her desire, that her life was standing still, while all things else +were speeding by her at a breakneck pace. + +It had never been so before. Even in the isolation and simplicity of her +former home she had felt that she was a part of it all. It had seemed to +her, somehow, as though her existence had been patterned after her own +turbulent mountain stream, which danced along through sunshine and +shade, with here and there a ravine and cataract, here and there a rapid +or impeding boulder in its course; but always moving, moving. Then, +suddenly, it was as though that swift little river had fallen into a +broad, quiet basin, walled in, where it moved forward almost +imperceptibly. True, it was daily gaining greater depth and fulness as +it gathered to itself the tributary waters of knowledge and experience, +and Smiles was not insensible to this fact. But it was difficult to +remember it always, for the outer world of events was moving forward so +fast. + +The very day upon which her probationary period came to an end and, with +a smile on her lips, a song in her heart, she placed the cherished cap +upon her gold-brown curls, there came, from the heart of the swiftly +piled up, lowering clouds, the blinding flash which shattered the peace +of the world and started the overwhelming conflagration into the +seething, bloody-tongued vortex into which nation after nation was +sucked irresistibly. The world had become the plaything of the Gods of +Wrath. + +Black days passed, shuddering things of horror to Rose, when she had +time to allow her mind to dwell upon them, and her keen imagination to +picture the atrocities which the fiend was committing upon the helpless +babies of Belgium and France. + +Then, in answer to the cries and lamentations from overseas, the banner +of the Red Cross was shaken forth anew, like a holy standard, and, like +crusaders of old, doctors and nurses flocked beneath it for the battle. +From her own hospital home went physicians and graduate nurses to +dedicate themselves afresh to service. The call reached and wrung the +heart of Rose. She could not go as a nurse, she knew; yet the need was +so great that it seemed to her that somehow she must answer; but she +resolutely closed her ears to it and fixed her eyes the more steadfastly +upon the rocky, shut-in path which she had set forth to climb. + +It was a raw, bleak evening in late November when she made her final +resolve. At noon Donald had met her in one of the corridors and stopped +to speak with her. His face, she thought afterwards, had appeared +unusually serious and determined, even for him, as he said, "This is +your afternoon and evening off duty, isn't it, Rose? I want to talk with +you, if you haven't made any other plans." + +As it chanced, she had been eagerly anticipating a visit to the theatre +with Miss Merriman, who was home for a few days between cases; but +something about his manner caused her to tell a white lie without +hesitation. + +"Good," he said. "I'll call for you in my car and take you to Ethel's +for dinner. Be ready at six o'clock." + +All the rest of the day Donald's presence had been strangely close to +her, and she found herself wondering what it portended; but not until +the pleasant family meal was over, and he was taking her home, did she +learn. + +When they came out of the house they found a baby blizzard sending the +first snow of the season, as light and dry as tiny particles of down, +whirling and eddying through the broad street. As Rose stood in surprise +at the top of the brownstone steps, a dry vagrant, left from one of the +trees which was tossing its gaunt arms protestingly, came tumbling down +to become stem-entangled in her hair. With a laugh, she dashed for the +motor car and, when she had sprung inside it, she was panting a little, +for the thieving wind had taken advantage of her lips being open in +laughter to steal away her breath, so that Donald was sensible of her +quickened heart beats as she leaned against him while his big but deft +fingers removed the leaf almost tenderly from its imprisoning mesh. + +"Doctor Bentley would make a pretty speech about getting caught in my +hair," challenged Rose with a teasing pout. + +The next instant she drew quickly back, for Donald's arms were almost +about her. He as quickly recovered himself, with the words, "But you +can't expect pretty speeches from a brother." + +"You have been a dear big brother; I don't know why you have been so +good to me, Donald. Do you know what this snow reminds me of? That awful +night on the mountain when I went down to Fayville to telegraph for +you--and you came." For a moment they both sat in silent memories, then +Rose added, "Dear little Lou, I wonder how she is getting along now ... +and Juddy, too. Isn't it a strange thing, Donald, that one can forget +the old things so quickly--no, not forget, either; but have them forced +into the background of the mind by new surroundings and new friends. +Sometimes, all those years on the mountain seem to me like a dream. I +used to see the people there, Grandpap, Mr. Talmadge, Judd and all the +rest, every day, they were a part of my life, and now they have been +completely withdrawn and who knows if I shall ever see any of them +again? They hardly seem real to me." + +"Yes, strange, perhaps, but it happens many times in the course of a +life." He paused, then added hurriedly, "I suppose that in a few months +you will be saying the same thing about me--'I used to see him every +day, he was a part of my life, but now he is only in the background of +my memory, and doesn't seem real.'" + +There was a note almost of bitterness in Donald's voice; but Rose was +too stunned by his words to notice or attempt to analyze the manner of +their utterance. + +"Donald, what ... what do you mean? You're not ..." She gasped, and laid +her hand with an impulsive clutch on his arm. + +"Look out! Don't interfere with the motorman," he laughed more +naturally, as the car swerved almost into the curbing. "Yes, I am. I'm +going away ... almost immediately." + +"Away? Where?" + +"To France." + +"Oh, Don, you mustn't; you can't. You're needed here so much." + +"They need me over there more, little Smiles. I've realized it, and felt +the pull, for days; but it didn't become insistent until yesterday, when +I received a letter from a chap whom I have known for years. He's always +had a good deal more money than was good for him, and been a sort of +social butterfly. I liked him, although I didn't believe that he had a +serious thought in his head, didn't think that he was capable of one, +but ... here, read what he has written me," he concluded abruptly, as a +temporary block forced their car to a stop beneath an electric light on +Massachusetts Avenue. "The first page doesn't matter; it merely contains +a description of how he happened to be caught in Paris by the outbreak +of the war, and got mixed up in volunteer rescue work through a spirit +of adventure." + +Rose turned to the second sheet and, holding the pages close to the +glass in the door, through which came enough snow-filtered light to +illumine them, read. + + "I am beginning to understand, now, something of what you meant + when you used to talk so enthusiastically about your confining, + and, as it seemed to me, often thankless work. I never knew what + real satisfaction was until I began to get mixed up with this + volunteer Red Cross work. Coming from the source that it does, you + will probably be surprised and amused at the statement that, when I + look back on the old, superficial, utterly useless life that I + formerly led, I actually thank God for the foolish whim that + brought me to Paris in the fall, and the equally whimsical decision + that led me to volunteer my services as an auto driver. The work + has stirred something inside of me that I didn't know existed, and, + if I come through this scrape (we're working in villages pretty + close to the front a good deal of the time), I'll come home + 'poorer, but wiser.' Yes, they've touched my pocketbook as well as + my heart. + + I suppose the papers give you some idea of conditions here; but no + verbal description can begin to do it justice; the need is simply + overwhelming and hourly growing greater. Think of it, old man, + there are thousands upon thousands of babies and little kiddies of + Belgium and northern France homeless, many of them orphaned, most + of them sick and all helpless and with their lives--which have + every right to be carefree and happy--filled with sorrow and + suffering. + + France has been glorious in the way she has met the staggering, + almost insuperable difficulties which everywhere confront her, but + how could she be expected to meet this incidental problem when she + was so overburdened with the crushing pressure of the battle for + her very existence. It has been a mighty lucky thing for her that + the Red Cross was ready to take it off her shoulders, and she has + turned to _us_ (How does that sound? Can you imagine me doing + anything useful?) with tears of appeal and gratitude. That isn't a + figure of speech. I have actually seen the Prefect of this + Province, who would rank with the governor of one of our states, + and who is a brave, capable man, cry like a woman over the seeming + hopelessness of the ghastly problem. I have heard him say that + he--that France--was helpless, and beg us in the name of common + humanity to do what we could. + + Believe me, we're doing it, and I'm proud of my countrymen and + women who have gone into this thing with the typical Yankee pep; + proud of the American Red Cross and just a bit proud of myself. You + used to make fun of my vaunted ability to stay up half the night, + and be fresh as a daisy the next morning. It's serving me in good + stead now. I can't begin to tell you about the work we have done + already and are doing; it is a task to overwhelm the courage, but + we are 'carrying on,' as the Tommies say. + + New children, by the scores and hundreds, are brought into the + hospital bases daily, and many of them have been living for weeks, + and even months, filthy in cellars of Hun-shattered villages which + are almost continually under fire. They are generally sick, + naturally, indescribably dirty and, in fact, mere wraiths of + childhood. God, Don, it gets me when I imagine my own nephews and + nieces in their places! + + We clean 'em up, give them help and something to live for. We have + already established hospitals, schools and nurseries in ---- and ---- + and our ambulances and 'traveling baths' go out daily to give aid + to the less needy in the neighborhood. Can you picture _me_ acting + as chauffeur for a magnified bath tub for Belgian babies? That's + what I'm doing, now! + + Get into the game, old man. We need you over here, and the kids of + the disgustingly rich at home will be the better for not having a + doctor to give them a pill every time their little noses run a bit. + Pack up your saws, axes and other trouble-makers in your old kit + bag and climb aboard a ship bound for France." + +Donald saw that there were tears in Smiles' deep eyes as she silently +folded the pages, and replaced them in their envelope. + +"Of course you ought to go," she said simply. "I spoke selfishly. But +oh, Don, I don't know what I shall do without you; you're the only +'family' I've got. I don't see you very often; but I know that you are +here in Boston, and I guess that I have got the habit of leaning on you +in my thoughts. You know I called you a tree, years and years ago." + +"Yes, I remember, an 'oak,' wasn't it? I thought that you meant that I +was tough," he laughed. "The idea of _you_ leaning on any one is funny, +Rose." Then he added, with some hesitancy, "I've been thinking ... +Would you like to go over there, too, Rose? I could take you ... that +is, I am quite sure that I could arrange for you to do so, not as a Red +Cross nurse, of course, for they have to be graduates; but as a +volunteer helper in one of those base hospitals. It would be a wonderful +experience, and you would be performing the kind of service that you +like best. It would not be time wasted, by any means." + +She started, and her lips parted eagerly; then the light slowly faded +from her eyes and she shook her head slowly. + +"I would love it. It would be glorious, Don, and I should be working +with you, perhaps, but ... No, I must keep on doing as I have planned. I +can't falter or fail now, Don. There is going to be greater need every +day, not for helpers, but for trained workers. When this awful war is +ended and the weary, weary world turns back to peaceful pursuits, its +hope and salvation will lie in its babies. Won't it, Don? I would like +to help those babies over in France; sometimes I dream of being a Red +Cross nurse and helping the poor, wounded soldiers; but I am sure that +it is better for me to keep on making myself ready to serve the coming +generations to the best of my fully trained ability. Don't you think so, +too, Don?" + +Her words had rung firm and true until the last question, when there +crept in a note which seemed to his ears to carry an appeal for him to +disagree, and argue with her; but the man answered, "Yes, dear. You are +dead right, and I felt certain that you would say what you have said. +You have got to stay until you are trained; I have got to go, because I +am. You see that, don't you?" + +"Yes. Oh, I shall miss you awfully, Don; I can't tell you how much. But +I want you to go. And I mean to pray for you, and the poor little babies +over there, too. I'll write you as often as I can; as often as you want +me to." + +"That's fine," he answered heartily. "But, as I told you once before, +don't feel hurt if I answer only occasionally. I have a suspicion that +there will be plenty of work for me to do over there." + +"Yes, I'll understand. Besides, you will have to write to ... to Miss +Treville more than to me. Are you ... are you going to get married +before you go?" + +"Married? Good Lord, no ... that is, I hadn't even thought of it," he +said with a forced laugh. "Why, I haven't even told her yet that I am +going." + +"You haven't? You told me, first?" + +"Well ... er ... you see I had to tell you, because ... because I ... I +hold a position of trust in respect to you, and have got to make +arrangements for your future. Big Jerry told me to use my own judgment +about your money, and I believe that you are fully competent to take +care both of yourself and of it. + +"Here," he drew a small package from his side pocket, "is a bank +deposit and check book, for I have already had the account transferred +from my name, as trustee, to you individually. Now it is up to you to +prove that you are a careful little business woman. With more than a +thousand dollars in the bank you may feel quite like an heiress, but I +warn you that a big city is a glutton and its avaricious maw is always +open for money. Be warned by one who knows. If you need any advice of +any nature that a man can give better than Miss Merriman, I want you to +promise to call on Phil ... Dr. Bentley, that is, for I mean to put you +in his charge. You can trust him just as you do me." + +"I know that," answered Rose frankly. + +"Well, here we are, little sister. Don't tell any one what I have just +told you, for I want to make all my preliminary arrangements before I +astound the world with the announcement of what I am going to do." + +"You needn't laugh," answered Rose. "I guess that it will dismay plenty +of Back Bay families who have babies." + +There was a catch in her voice as she bade him good-night, and she was +not sorry for an excuse for running into the hospital, offered by the +mellow notes of a distant church clock tolling the hour of ten. It was +the signal for "lights out" in the bedrooms, and this was appreciated, +too, for it made it possible for her to undress in the dark, and the +pale moonlight which came in through the window, as the moon played +hide and seek behind the broken masses of storm clouds--for the blizzard +had ended as quickly as it had come on--was reflected on two glistening +tear drops on her flushed cheeks. In the darkness her roommate could not +see them and be led to ask questions. + +The two girls, one the self-educated, unknown child of the southern +mountain side, the other the college-bred daughter of one of New +England's oldest families, had become fast friends and generally +exchanged whispered confidences until the sleep which comes of physical +exhaustion speedily claimed them; but to-night Rose was in no mood for +conversation. + +The last thread which bound the old life to the new was soon to be +broken, and she felt lonelier, more nearly homesick, than she had since +leaving Webb's Gap. + +"Perhaps I shall never see him again," she half whispered. "But I shall +never, _never_ forget him, he has been so good and meant so much to me. +And I shall always love him." She saw that her roommate was asleep, +softly raised the window-shade to let in the moonlight that she loved, +and, clad in her simple nightdress, short sleeved and cut low at the +neck, seated herself before the mirror to brush her wavy mass of hair, +and, as she leaned forward, and it fell about her face, tear bedewed and +made almost childlike again by its frame of tumbling curls, she smiled +faintly in recollection. "I look the way I used to in my homemade, +one-piece dresses," she breathed. "Just as I did that afternoon when he +first saw me. 'Yo' looked so funny a-fallin' over thet thar dawg, an' +a-rollin' on the floor.' What a way to greet a famous physician--only I +didn't know it then." + +For a moment she sat like this, her thoughts far away from the northern +city; then a faint blush mantled her face, and she hastily jumped up and +shut out the soft light by pulling down the shade. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE GOAL + + + You cannot, by a bridge of sighs, attain the future's golden years, + But try a bridge of rainbow hopes erected on substantial piers + Of honest work, and you will find it leads you surely to the goal. + 'Tis God that gives the dreamer's dreams, as radiant as the morning, + But, if the will to work is weak, they often die a-borning. + +If this were a romance, instead of the simple account of the pilgrimage +and development of a girl from childhood to womanhood, it would be +permissible to say, "three years pass by in swift flight," or "drag by +on weary feet," as the case may have been, and then resume the action. + +But in everyday life, character is built out of everyday incidents, big +and little, all of which have place in the moulding of it, and, since +the years of Smiles' training within the Children's Hospital were vital +ones for her, it is essential to touch briefly upon some of the +occurrences which filled them. + +On the other hand, it is by no means necessary to describe that period +at length. It is doubtful if, in later life, she will herself look back +upon the many days so filled to repletion with exacting, though +interesting, tasks, as other than a dead level, for constant repetition +of a thing, no matter how gripping it may be, produces a monotony. But +there were special incidents--sometimes trivial in comparison with the +importance of her sustained labor--which formed the high lights in the +picture, and the memory of which will endure through all the after +years. By recounting a few of these, and letting our imaginations fill +in the interims, we can accompany Rose on her journey to the goal of her +desires. + + * * * * * + +The day after Donald had taken her into his confidence regarding his +plans, Rose made up her mind to keep a diary. + +"Even though he may be thousands of miles away, I mean to keep myself as +close to him as possible by writing him as I would talk to him, about +_all_ the things which happen in my life, and, unless I set them down as +they happen, I shall forget," she told Miss Merriman, after the seal of +secrecy had been removed from her lips. + +"Perhaps _you_ can succeed in keeping one. _I_ never could," laughed her +friend. "Each January First I start a new one, and register a solemn vow +to keep it up longer, at least, than I did the one the previous year. If +I follow that system until I am three hundred and fifty years old, I +will complete just one before I die." + +Smiles accepted the implied challenge, and, day by day, with few +omissions, the dated pages bore new testimony to her application in +performing a self-appointed task. The plan bore fruit, too, for Donald, +in his rare replies to her confidential letters, which went to him each +fortnight, was able to praise her as the best of correspondents, writing +once, "You have an exceptional gift for making incidents seem real and +people alive, in your letters, and of realizing that, with us who are so +far away from home, it _is_ the little things which count. Ethel, alas, +is hopeless in this respect. She writes me faithfully; but invariably +says that nothing has happened except the usual occurrences of everyday +life, and thereby utterly misses the great fact that it is just those +very things that the lonely exile most longs to hear about. I would +actually rather have her write that they had baked beans on Saturday +night than that so-and-so had given a charity whist at the Vendome." + +Yet many a sentence went into the diary that was never copied or +embellished for Donald's eyes. Some of them had to do with him, or her +thoughts of him; some were too intimate for another to see. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + December 6th, 1915. + +"My dear Donald has gone. I think that I have not felt so utterly +lonesome since granddaddy died. And I could not get away to say +good-by to him--I could have cried, only I didn't have time even to +do _that_. It doesn't seem right, when he has been so dear to me, +that I should have had to part from him in the hospital corridor +with others around, so that all I could do was press his hand an +instant and wish him a commonplace, 'Good luck and God-speed.' +Still, it probably wouldn't have been any different if we had been +alone. I couldn't have done what my heart was longing to do, +everything is different now. I don't believe that I enjoy being +'grown-up.' What an unpleasant thing 'convention' is. Why, I +wonder, must we always hide our true feelings under a mask? I +suppose it is lest the world give a wrong meaning to them; but if I +_had_ kissed him, the way I used to, I'm sure that Donald would +have understood. He knows that I love him as dearly as though I +were truly his sister, instead of a make-believe one." + +Here the page bears a number of meaningless hieroglyphics, and then the +words, stricken out, "I wonder." + +"He looked so manly in his uniform, and so distinguished, although +I suppose that he isn't really _handsome_--at least, not like Dr. +Bentley. _He_ isn't so wonderful as Don; but I think that he is +more understanding. He seemed to realize just how I felt this +morning, and he was as sweet and considerate as a woman when I +bungled things awfully in the operating room. The head nurse gave +me a deserved call down, however, and it was perhaps just as well +that she did, for my mind needed to be 'brought back.' Only my body +was in the hospital, and the _real me_, as Mr. Talmadge said, was +back in the cabin, helping Donald operate on Lou, all over again. I +cried like a little fool--the first time I have done it here--but +my tears weren't for the poor baby on the operating table. They +were memory tears.... + +"Poor little thing, he had to die, and he was the first one whom I +have seen pass on to the eternal garden of God's flowers since I +have been in the hospital. Oh, it hasn't been a happy day at +all.... + +"I wonder if Donald could have saved him? My brain answers, 'No.' +Dr. Bentley did all that lies within the power of science, I am +sure. But somehow ..." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + Christmas night. + +"If Donald might only have been here in person to-day, it would have been +perfect. I think that he must have been, in spirit, for I 'felt' his +presence quite near me several times; I confided as much to Dr. Bentley +and he made an atrocious pun on the word 'presents.' I wish he wouldn't; +it is the only thing about him that I don't like, but he will make them. +Wasn't Donald thoughtful and dear to have bought a Christmas gift for me +during those overcrowded days before he went away?--a whole set of +books, beautifully bound, but better still, beautiful within. Books are +the same as people, I think. We like to see both attractively clothed, +but in each it is the soul that counts.... + +"What a lot of presents I received--from Miss Merriman and her mother, +Mrs. Thayer and little Muriel, and, oh, so many of the girls here. I +don't know why they are all so good to me--because I am looked upon as a +lonely little savage, I suppose. And then there was that one from Dr. +Bentley. The idea of a simple mountain girl from Webb's Gap having five +whole pounds of candy at once! + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +"The funniest thing happened to-day, and I must not forget to write +Donald all about it. He is sure to remember little red-headed Jimmy, who +has to spend so much of his time in the hospital. Has he imagination +enough, I wonder, to picture him sitting up in bed in the snow-white +ward, with his flaming auburn hair and bright red jacket calling names +at each other? I love the old custom to which the hospital still clings +of putting all the little patients into those red flannel jackets on +cold days, for it makes the wards look so cheerful--like Christmas +fields dotted with bright berries. Jimmy is a dear, and so imaginative +that I believe he _lives_ every story that I tell him of the +Cumberlands--certainly he likes them better than fairy stories. This +afternoon, I had finished telling him about how grandpappy shot the +turkey for Dr. MacDonald, and I found him looking up at me with his big +blue eyes, which can be as serious as a saint's or as mischievous as an +imp's. 'Your face is most always laughing, Miss Webb,' said he. 'I think +I shall have to call you Nurse Smiles.' My roommate, Miss Roberts, +happened to be in the room and heard him, and now it's all over the +hospital. Everybody is calling me it, unless the superintendent or some +of the older doctors are around. How odd it is that he should have +struck on it, and given me my old nickname again.... + +"Dr. Bentley called me Smiles when he left after his evening visit." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + May 17th, 1916. + +"This has been a day of days for me. First I received a long and +wonderful letter from Donald. It seemed like old times, for it was as +kindly and simple, too, as those which he used to write to me at Webb's +Gap. I wonder if he regards me as still a child? I suppose that I really +am one, but somehow I feel very grown up, and much older than many of +the girls who are years older than I. They constantly surprise me by +acting so young when they are off duty ... but I love it in them. + +"To-day I entered into the second year of my training. I wish that I had +the power to set down on paper my feelings when I received that first +narrow black band for my cap. I suppose that I had some of the same +'prideful' sensations that dear granddaddy did when he was very young, +and cut the first notch in the stock of his rifle-gun. But how much +better _my_ notch is! It means that I am fast getting able to save +lives, not to take them. I must always remember that--it will give a +deeper meaning to the symbol. And now my room is going to be moved down +a story--I'm so glad that Dorothy Roberts is to be with me still--and I +can move in one table nearer the front wall in the dining room. That +wall sometimes seems to me like a goal that I have got to reach before I +will be safe, just as in a children's game of tag, and, when I get tired +and discouraged--for I do, at times, little diary--it seems as though +there were many, many things stretching out invisible hands to catch me +before I get to it. Donald was right about the path being no road of +roses.... Come, this will never do; I'm supposed to be happy to-night, +and besides, now I've got to live up to my nickname again. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +I wonder how much I really have changed in the year? a good deal, I'm +sure. I remember that at first I used to laugh to myself over the 'class +distinctions,' such as I have just been writing about; that was when I +was fresh from the mountain, where every one called every one else by +his or her first name--and also when I was in the lowest class myself. +Once I was even bold enough to tell Dr. Bentley that I thought they were +foolish, but he reminded me--as Donald had--that we are an army here, +and that in an army a private can't eat and sleep with a captain, or a +captain with a general. Now I don't mind the rules and regulations at +all, for I have learned the lesson of discipline, and I know that, even +if we do have to be strict in our conduct toward the older nurses and +the doctors, we are all--from the senior surgeon down to the lowliest +probationer--really one in a great spiritual fellowship, as the +prayerbook says, and all working together in the same great cause." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + August 19th, 1916. + +"Little diary, I have been neglecting you lately, but now you and I must +collect our thoughts, for we have got to write a long, long letter to +Donald and tell him all about the vacation--the first that I ever had. + +It was the first time that I was ever really at the seashore, too, +except that one afternoon in June when Dr. Bentley took me down to +Nahant in his car. Weren't the Thayers dear to have me as their guest at +beautiful Manchester-by-the-Sea? Ethel (I wonder if Donald will be +pleased to know that his _real_ sister has asked me to call her by her +first name?) insisted that they did it for my own sake, but I know that +it was really on his account. They were two weeks of wonder for me; but +I wish that he might have been there. How they all miss him--even Dr. +Bentley. I think that there is nothing finer than such a friendship +between two men. Why, he even calls on Donald's family still. He came to +Manchester twice in the fortnight that I was there. Dr. Bentley wants me +to call him 'Philip,' when we are not in the hospital, and I do ... +sometimes. It seems perfectly natural, even though he is much older than +I--he is over thirty; but I suppose that is because at home we called +almost every one by his first name. (We are rambling, little diary. I +don't believe that Donald would be particularly interested in the fact +that I call Dr. Bentley, 'Philip.') + +He _will_ be interested to know how the sea impressed me, though, and +again I find myself wholly at a loss for words to express my feelings. +It was so overwhelming in its grandeur and far-stretching expanse; so +beautiful in its never-ending procession of colors; so terrible in its +might, when aroused. I have seen it asleep as peacefully as one of my +babies (all the hospital babies are children of my heart), and I have +seen it in anger, like a brutal giant. I wish that I had not seen its +latter mood, for, when it caught up the little boat that had been torn +from the moorings, and hurled her again and again against the rocks +until there was not a plank of her left unbroken--while the wind +shrieked its horrid glee--my growing love for it was turned to fear. No, +I can never care for the ocean as I do for my mountains. I cannot forget +that it was the waters which stole my dearest treasures from me. + +Still, the memory of that storm is nearly lost in the abounding +happiness of those two weeks, and the third one which I spent with my +Gertrude Merriman, who stole it from her many cases to be with me. When +I set down each little incident of them in black and white, as I mean to +in my letter to Don, they will appear commonplace enough, I'm afraid; +but I shall tell him that their story is written on my heart in letters +of gold and many colors. + +He pretends to be interested in every foolish little thing that I have +done, but I don't suppose that he would care to read about all the new +dresses I have bought. I never realized before that a girl could get so +much pleasure out of buying pretty things, and I am afraid that he would +scold me if he knew how many leaves I have used out of my checkbook. Not +that they have been all for clothes, little diary. I did not realize how +much I had given to war charities, and I was a little frightened this +morning when I made up my balance. + +But I cannot help giving for the poor French and Belgian babies. It +somehow seems as though I were giving the money to Don to spend for me." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +There follow many entries, in the course of which the name of Donald +appears, and many more in which that of Philip, from which one might +reasonably draw the conclusion that the latter was conscientiously +performing his part as _ad interim_ guardian for Rose. There are also +several mentions of impish, lovable Jimmy--he of the red hair, +presumably--and of visits, on her afternoons off, to the cheap and +somewhat squalid apartment where he lived with his thin, tired, but +pitifully optimistic mother, and a stout, florid-faced father, who wore +shabby, but very loud-checked, suits and was apparently a highly +successful business man of big affairs, but frequently "temporarily out +of funds." Indeed, it would seem as though there were times when the +family--which included six other children from one to ten years +old--would actually not have had enough to eat if Rose had not "loaned" +the wherewithal to purchase it to the father of the household. + +Under date of May 15th, 1916, appears the following. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +"_Two_ black bands on the little white cap! One round table nearer the +wall! Materia medica, orthopedia, medical analysis, general surgery, +bacteriology, therapeutics and anaesthesia no longer mere words, whose +very sound made me weak with dismay; but terms descriptive of new ways +in which I can help weak and suffering babyhood. It has been hard, but +soul-satisfying, work. I love it all, and have never regretted the +decision made, centuries ago it seems, on the mountain. I have just been +re-reading Donald's first letter to me--the one in which he frankly +warned me of the hardships which would be mine to face, if I should +attempt to carry out my plan. It was, I think, the only time that he was +ever wrong ... no, I had forgotten that afternoon at Judd's still. Work +may be hard, and yet entail no hardship, especially when it brings the +satisfaction of winning against odds. I know that he did not really mean +what he said in that letter. It was written merely as a test of my +resolve; to deter me, if it wasn't strong enough to carry me through. +There have been times when I have myself wondered if it would, but, +thanks to dear old Mr. Talmadge, and his 'sermon on the mount' I have +always been able to find the help that he told us about. I wonder if +Donald has, too? Surely he must have, he has been doing such wonderful +work 'over there.' It is like him to say so little about it in his +letters, but Dr. Roland gave us a talk about what they have been doing +in Toul and Leslie, when he returned from France, and he sang Donald's +praises _fortissimo_. I was so happy, and so proud. + +"They all tell me that the coming year is the hardest of all with its +practical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and in the +Manhattan Maternity in New York. I have a feeling that I am not going to +enjoy the former. Nursing 'grown-ups' does not appeal to me as the +caring for the little flowers does. But I shall love the other. +Motherhood is sacred and beautiful.... + +"I shall have to be very economical this year, little diary, and +especially careful when I get to New York. When I paid the final +installment on my tuition fee, I was frightened to find how little +remained of what granddaddy left me, and what I had saved, myself. +Nearly thirteen hundred dollars looked like a huge fortune to me in +those days, but it is nothing at all in a city, where there is so much +poverty, and there are so many appeals to one's heart. I know that +Donald--or Philip--would lend me a little money until the time when I +get to earning it for myself, if I should ask them. But of course I +cannot do that. Perhaps I can earn a little during my afternoons and +evenings off duty. The girls say that I can shampoo and manicure as well +as a professional. Yes, I will try to do that this year." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + January 15th, 1917. + +"Thank goodness my worries about finances are almost over! + +"The last few months have been simply terrible, and the hardest part of +all, I think, has been my not being able to give anything to the number +of splendid causes which so touch the sympathies these dark days. +Perhaps I gave too much before; but I am not a bit sorry, especially now +that some of the seed which I cast upon the waters is soon to bear +golden fruit for me. I never believe the pessimistic people who say that +those who receive charity are never really grateful, and now I _know_ +that they are wrong. Jimmy's father has been so appreciative of my +pitifully small presents to them, that sometimes he has cried over them, +and I knew that he was in earnest when he promised to repay me as soon +as he possibly could. Now the chance has come. I was there yesterday and +he said that he had been thinking about me just before I appeared. + +"It seems that he sells stock, and has just obtained a wonderful +position as agent, or whatever they call it, for a new copper mine which +he says is better than the 'Calumet and Hecla.' + +"He explained to me all about that one and showed me in the paper how +high it was selling now--for $550 a share. He is the sole representative +for all of New England, and he says that the company is at present +selling its stock only to special friends in order to 'let them in on +the ground floor.' The shares are only ten dollars apiece and are sure +to be worth a hundred, or more, very soon, because of the war. It seems +almost impossible! I told him that I had only about a hundred dollars in +the world, but that, if he really felt that he wanted to do me a favor, +I _might_ 'invest' it (that word sounds quite impressive, doesn't it?) +but that I should have to think it over, first. I remembered what Donald +had told me about asking a man's advice--especially Philip's--in money +matters. Perhaps it would have been wiser if I had done so before. + +"I asked him this afternoon if he knew anything about the King Kopper +Kompany, and he said that it was a 'get rich proposition' and that he +had sunk a good deal of his own money into some just like it. I wanted +to ask him more, but we were interrupted. However, I know that he is +very well-to-do, so he must have made money in them and certainly I need +to get rich quick. I'm going to make the investment to-morrow." + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + March 11th. + +"Stung! I hate slang, but sometimes nothing else is quite so expressive. +I thought that I was getting to be very wise, but, oh, what a little +ignoramus I have been. And to think that I thought I was following +Philip's advice, and did not realize what he really meant until I read +a story about a man who was called 'Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.' Now I'd +rather die than tell him that I have lost practically all of my worldly +goods!" + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +Finally, late in May, is an entry, longer than any of its predecessors, +and the last for many a day. Rose made it seated in the soft moonlight +which came through the window of her hospital room, after her roommate +had fallen asleep. + +"I am in a strange mood to-night, little diary, and not quite sure +whether I want to laugh or cry--indeed, I think that my heart has +done both to-day. I don't feel like going to sleep, but perhaps I +will be able to if I get the many thoughts out of my mind and down +on paper--now they are like so many little imps beating against my +brain with hammers. + +"Surely I _should_ be happy at the thought that to-morrow is to +carry me to my goal at the top of the mountain path which Donald +described. In twelve hours I shall (D. V.) be a graduate nurse; +but, now that the journey is almost an accomplished fact, I +positively shiver when I think of the nerve of that child who was I +five years ago and who, blessed with ignorance, made up her mind to +become one, or 'bust'--that is the way I put it, then. Friends have +sometimes told me that they didn't see how I had the courage to +attempt it; but I tell them, truthfully, that it isn't courage when +one tackles a thing which she--or he--doesn't know is difficult to +do, and that few things are insurmountably difficult which she +tackles with confidence (which is as often the result of ignorance +as of faith in one's own power). So how can I take any credit for +succeeding? + +"It _has_ been hard work, of course, and I know that I must have +failed if every one had not been so good to me, and, above all, if +God had not meant me to succeed. I have never forgotten that night +when the 'reverend' opened my eyes to the knowledge that I am His +partner in working out my life. Dear Mr. Talmadge! I am ashamed +that I stopped writing to him, so long ago, yet I know that he is +still my friend, although we do not see each other. That is the +beauty of true friendship--it is a calm and constant star, always +in its place against the time when we want to lift our eyes to seek +its light. I know that it is the same with Donald. + +"When I think of him to-night, and realize that he cannot +be near me in my little hour of triumph to-morrow, it is hard for me +to keep back the tears. Dear God, bless him and bring him +happiness--with Miss Treville. + +"I cannot help feeling worried about Donald, for, although his +letter makes light of his illness, I have a troublesome +presentiment that he is worse than he will acknowledge. He is the +kind to spend every ounce of his wonderful vitality without thought +of self, and the two and a half years during which he has been +laboring so hard, and so effectively, must have drained even his +great strength. Slight, wiry people are like the willows that bend +easily, but return to normal quickly, after the stress of storm has +ended; but, when big ones--like Donald--break, it is like the fall +of a mighty oak. + +"Still, this cloud, like all clouds, has its bright lining. _He is +coming home_, just as soon as he is able to make the trip, so, +although I shall miss him dreadfully to-morrow, it will not be many +weeks before I shall see him again. + +"But this is not all that is troubling me, diary, and if I were not +quite sure that no one but I would ever look inside your covers, I +would not confide it even to you. + +"I have a present, a wonderful present,--and I do not think that I +ought to keep it. Help me make up my mind. When P. gave it to me +this afternoon, he said that it was just a little remembrance for +my graduation and that he hoped I would accept it as the gift of a +semiofficial guardian, just as I would if Donald himself were +giving it to me. I did take it in that spirit; but, when I found a +moment to steal away and open the wrapper, and beheld a beautiful +morocco case containing a _gold watch_ with my initials engraved on +the case, my heart almost stopped beating. This was his 'little +remembrance.' Of course it is something that I shall need in my +work, for it has a second hand, but he must have guessed that I +would be troubled by such an expensive gift, for he tried to make +light of it by enclosing a foolish little rhyme, which I must copy +so that I shall not forget it. + + 'When it is _time_ to take _hour_ pulse + You'll find a use for what is in it,[A] + (On _second_ thoughts, I'd like to add + I wish you'd take mine every _minute_.)' + +"Conventions are _so_ puzzling, little diary, that I don't know +what I ought to do. Somehow, I feel quite sure that the +Superintendent wouldn't approve, for a doctor should not be making +presents to a pupil nurse; yet P. has been so kind that I hate to +think of hurting his feelings by giving it back. Besides, I love it +... and it is engraved R. W. Then, too, if I should return it, he +might think that I didn't credit him with having done it while +acting in Donald's place as my guardian, and if it was not that +thought which prompted him, why ... Oh, I don't know what to do! + +"Worse still, Dorothy Roberts came up unexpectedly and saw the +watch. Of course she wanted to know from whom it came and I +answered, on the impulse, 'From my guardian.' I'm sure that she +believes that it was a present from Donald and therefore perfectly +proper, for I have told her all about his relationship to me, and +it hurts me to think that I have been guilty of a lie. Of course it +wasn't one in actual words, perhaps; but I had the spirit to +deceive, and now I can't confess without involving P. and she might +think that he is in ... Oh, I can't write it, for of course he +isn't. How could he be? No, it was just a natural act of his +generous heart, because he knew that I was without relatives to +give me a graduation gift. + +"I hope that I sleep my uncertainties away, for to-morrow must hold +nothing but sunshine and smiles." + +[Footnote A: Poetical license--meaning 'what is in the box.'] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +"BUT A ROSE HAS THORNS" + + +The May day, the day of fulfilment for Smiles' dreams and the fruition +of her work, had come. Her healthy, mountain-bred body had enabled her +to keep well and strong; she had gone through the full three years with +scarcely a day's illness, and she was ready to graduate with the class, +some of whom would have to stay longer to make up time lost by illness. + +Rose awoke early to a sense of something unusual in prospect. On the +window of her room the rain was pattering merrily. All nature was one to +her, and she loved the showers as much as the sunshine, but, when she +began to realize what day it was, they brought a feeling of vague +disappointment. Surely _this_ day, which meant so much in her life, +might have dawned fair! The glimpse of a leaden sky colored her thoughts +for a moment, as she lay still in the drowsy relaxation of +half-awakening, when dreams beckon from _dolce far niente_ land, and the +whispering voice of slumber mingles with the more stirring call of the +brain to be up and doing. The recollection that Donald was far away, and +could not be with her to witness her triumph, brought a sense of bitter +disappointment to her over again. "I must write him everything that +happens to-day. He will be happy in my happiness, I know," she murmured, +half aloud, and her roommate awoke and answered with a sleepy, "What, +dear?" + +"Nothing. I guess that I must have been talking in my sleep," laughed +Rose, as she now sat up energetically, fully awake. By their own request +Dorothy Roberts and she still occupied one of the few double rooms +reserved for third-year student nurses, who preferred to share their +quarters. + +The other followed, more drowsily. + +"Look," called Rose, from the window. "It's going to clear. Oh, see that +wonderful rainbow. I don't believe I ever saw one in the morning +before." + +"'Rainbow at morning, sailors take warning,'" quoted Dorothy. + +"I don't believe in that, or any other _unpleasant_ 'stupidstition'--as +my reverend used to call them," Rose retorted, as she hastily began to +dress, for the last time, in the blue striped costume which had been +hers for nearly three years, but was, in a few hours, to change to one +pure white, like a sombre chrysalis to a radiant butterfly. "No matter +when a rainbow appears it is always an omen of fair promise. It's Mother +Nature smiling through her tears." + +She caught, in the mirror, a reflection of her friend's affectionate +glance; her own cheek began to dimple and her lips to curve as she said, +"I can tell by your expression just what you're going to say, and...." + +"Egoist," mocked the other. "I hadn't the slightest idea of comparing +your own smile to a rainbow, so now." + +"I can't help it, really." Rose spoke with unfeigned distress in her +voice, and began angrily to massage the corners of her mouth downward. +"There's something wrong with the muscles of my face, I think, and +sometimes I get worried for fear people will think that it's +affectation. I get frightfully tired of seeing a perpetually forced grin +on other faces--it reminds me of Mr. William Shakespeare's remark that +'a man may smile and be a villain still.'" + +"Not with your kind, dear. 'There's a painted smile on the lip that +lies, when the villain plays his part; and the smile in the depths of +the honest eyes--and this is the smile of the heart.'" + +"Or of the cheerful idiot," supplemented Rose. "Do you really think that +I'm ... shallow? Sometimes it seems to me that the truly wise, +thoughtful people, who search the deeps of life and are themselves +strongly stirred, are always serious looking." + +"Pooh. It's generally pose, and a much easier one to get away with. I +always discount it about ninety-nine per cent." + +"But, at least, others must think that I am always happy, and I'm +not--sometimes I wish that I might be; but not often, for one would have +to be utterly selfish and unsympathetic in order to be so, when there is +so much suffering everywhere." + +"I know, and feel the same way, Rose. But it seems to me that a +smile--at least one like yours--isn't so much the visible expression of +joy, as it is a symbol of cheer for others ... like a rainbow. There, I +vowed that I wouldn't, and now I've 'gone and went and done it.'" + +Miss Roberts spoke lightly, to cover a suspicious huskiness in her +voice, for she worshipped the girl who had been so close to her for +three years, and whose way and hers would necessarily diverge after that +morning. + +"Don't you _dare_ to forget how to smile. We all love it," she added, +with an assumption of a bullying tone; and then the two held each other +very close and laughed and cried, both together, for a moment. They +finished dressing in unusual silence, for the thoughts of each were busy +with the things which the day and the future might bring forth for them. + +Contrary to custom, Dorothy finished first, and preceded Rose +downstairs. + +When the latter reached the little assembly room, she found a small +group of pupil nurses standing in the doorway. One was reading something +from a page of a sensational afternoon newspaper, dated the day +previous, and, as Smiles joined them, she hastily slipped it out of +sight behind her. All of them appeared so self-conscious, that the new +arrival stopped with a queer tightening about her heart. + +"Show it to her," said Dorothy, quietly. "She's bound to hear of it +sooner or later." + +The sinking sensation within Rose's breast increased, and she stepped +forward, saying faintly, "What is it, Dolly? Not ... not Dr. MacDonald? +Nothing has happened ...?" + +"No, dear. That is ... well, it concerns him; but I think that, if +anything, he is to be congratulated. It is something to find out.... +Here, read it yourself." + +She took the paper from the owner, and handed it to Rose. + +It was the page devoted to happenings in society, and from the top +centre looked forth a two-column cut of Marion Treville's strikingly +beautiful face. Beneath was a stick of text, which read: + + "Back Bay society is buzzing with the rumor, which comes from an + apparently unimpeachable source, that the beautiful Miss Treville + of Beacon Street, who, since her debut seven years ago, has been + one of the leaders of Boston's smartest set, is about to announce + her engagement to Stanley Everts Vandermeer, the well-known New + York millionaire sportsman. Miss Treville was formerly betrothed to + Dr. Donald MacDonald, the famous children's specialist of this + city, who has been in France for more than two years. No previous + intimation had been given that this engagement had been broken." + +Rose read the brief article twice, mechanically, and almost without +understanding. Then a wave of hot anger, akin to that which had +possessed her on the mountain on the afternoon when her eyes had first +been opened to the duplicity of human nature, swept over her. It was +only by a strong effort that she refrained from crushing the sheet, and +speaking aloud her denunciation of the woman whose behavior so outraged +her sense of justice. + +[Illustration: "READ THE BRIEF ARTICLE TWICE, MECHANICALLY, AND ALMOST +WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING"] + +The call came for the morning prayer, and she handed the paper back +without a word; but for once the simple exercises, which, on this +morning, should have meant so much more than usual, wholly failed to +bring their customary peace. Her lips formed the words of the prayer, +and joined in the singing of the hymn, but her mind was far away in +France, and her heart rebellious within her. + +Her thoughts did not harbor a doubt of Donald's love for the woman, who, +it was said on "apparently unimpeachable" authority, had now discarded +him for another and wealthier suitor. To be sure, he had not married +her, as he might have, before he went away; but this was not strange, +under the conditions; indeed, she thought it to his credit, since he had +left to be away so long in the performance of a hard and hazardous duty. +And surely Donald had remained true! Anything else was unthinkable, and, +besides, Ethel often spoke of her sister-in-law-to-be, and of the +marriage which would quickly follow her brother's return. That Miss +Treville had apparently remained so faithful, also, had helped to banish +some of Smiles' uncertain feelings concerning her, and she had begun to +hope that some day she might succeed in finding the key to the city +woman's heart and enter the fold of her friendship, for she could not +bear the idea that Donald's marriage might result in Donald's being +estranged from her, or cause a break in their wonderful friendship. Now +her thoughts railed against the woman who had been so unstable, at a +time when keeping faith with those who went, perhaps to die, had become +a nation's watchword. This thought completely superseded the one that +had sometimes been hers--that the woman was not worthy the love of the +man whom she, herself, worshipped. It was like a mother, suffering for +her hurt child, and her lips quivered with suppressed hate. It passed, +and left her almost frightened. + +"I guess that I'm still a mountaineer at heart," she whispered, as she +mechanically bowed her head with the others. "I almost feel as though I +could kill her. Poor Donald! He has always been so blindly trusting +where his heart was concerned.... Perhaps Dorothy is right, perhaps he +is better off, if it is true; but if this embitters him, if it spoils +his faith in womankind, I shall hate her as long as I live." Then came +the reflection that the report might not be true. "I shall go and ask +her, myself, this afternoon!" + +Smiles arose from her knees, aged in soul. + +She had looked forward to this morning with all the eager anticipation +of a child; but now, as she donned the white uniform of a graduate +nurse--the costume which represented the full attainment of the hard-won +goal,--no smile greeted her as she looked at her own reflection in the +glass. + +"Donald was right," she murmured. "I am just beginning to realize that +even this fulfilment of my dream is not going to bring me happiness. It +is born of the heart, or not at all." And her mind travelled back to the +letter which she had tearfully penned him after Big Jerry's death. +"Things never happen just as we plan. When we look forward to something +pleasant which we want very much to happen, we never stop to think that +there may be unhappiness mixed with it." A solitary tear ran down her +cheek, and made a moist spot on the front of her new uniform. + +The smile, usually spontaneous, had to be forced to her lips when she +went to take her place, with the score of other happy graduating nurses, +in the amphitheatre of the Harvard Medical School, next door, where the +exercises were to be held. + +"What is the matter with my Rose?" wondered Miss Merriman, who had +managed to be present. And, "What is the matter with _my_ Rose?" thought +Dr. Bentley. He had seen her for just a moment that morning, and, +through the warm, lingering pressure of her hand, received the thanks +which she could not speak. + +It was, in truth, a very sober Smiles who only half-heard the words of +the impressively simple exercises, during which the newly made laborers +in the Lord's vineyard received the diplomas which bore the seal of the +hospital--a Madonna-like nurse, holding a child. Its original, cast in +bronze--the work of a famous modern sculptor--hung in the +administration building of the hospital, and she had often stood before +it with tender dreams. And it was a very sober Smiles upon whose dress +was pinned the blue and gold cross, the emblem alike of achievement and +service. + +Miss Merriman spoke her thought aloud, as she took the girl into her +arms, afterwards. "You looked too sweet for words, dear. But, tell me, +why that woe-begone expression on this, of all days? One would think +that all the worries of the world lay on your young heart." + +"Perhaps they do," was the non-committal answer. And Rose pleaded a +previous engagement when the older nurse begged her company for the +afternoon, and Dr. Bentley for the evening. + +The happy laughter, the parting words, both grave and gay, which were +spoken by those who had been her companions during the long journey, +fell on ears which heard, but transmitted them to her mind vaguely, and +her answers were inconsequential, so much so, that more than one friend +regarded her with troubled surprise and whispered to another that Rose +was either not well, or was dazed with happiness. And when Dorothy +ventured to hint at the latter alternative, the girl acknowledged it +with a strained imitation of her usual smile, and straightway found her +thoughts scourging her because of this new deception. + +It seemed to her that the day, for which she had builded so long, was +tumbling about its foundations, and yet, when she now and again brought +her runaway thoughts up with a round turn, she could not assign any +logical reason for her feeling as she did. + +"After all, what is it to me?" she would ask herself, logically, one +moment. And at the next her heart would reply, "Everything. He is all +that you have in the world in the way of 'family,' for he _is_ more than +friend to you." "Yes," Rose would admit, "I am afraid for him, I could +not be more so if he were really my brother. She isn't worthy of +him--I've known that, somehow, since the first day that he tried to tell +me about her. But that isn't the point. Love is blind, and, if her +faithlessness hurts him, I will hate her always. I hate her _now_. She +has spoiled my day, and I know that I have hurt Gertrude and Philip, for +they can't understand what the trouble is." + +The idea passed over and over through the endless labyrinth of her brain +and found no escape, while she ate the noonday meal, and later changed +from her white uniform to a plain blue serge walking dress, and black +sailor hat. Ever with it went the accompanying thought, "I _must_ see +her." To what end she did not know or seriously attempt to analyze. Rose +was not the first to take up cudgels in a lost cause, spurred thereto by +a purpose which was incapable of receiving any logical explanation. It +was the "mother spirit," fighting for its own. + + * * * * * + +A maid opened the door on Beacon street in response to her ring, and, on +entering the hall, Rose found herself face to face with Marion +Treville. She was clad for the street and was at that moment in the act +of buttoning a long white glove. As she recognized the visitor, a deep +flush mounted quickly on the patrician face of the older woman and, for +an instant, her teeth caught her lower lip. + +Smiles' face was very pale, so pale that her large eyes by contrast +appeared almost startling in their depth and color. There was a gossamer +film of dust on her shoes and the bottom of her skirt, for she had +walked all the way from the hospital, and she realized this fact with a +sense of chagrin, when she saw Miss Treville's eyes travel to her feet, +and mentally contrasted her own appearance with that of the perfectly +appointed daughter of wealth before her. + +Neither spoke for an instant. It was as though each were trying to read +the thoughts of the other. Then Miss Treville said in a cool, even tone, +"You may go, Louise." + +The maid vanished silently, with one curious backward glance as she +passed through the door at the end of the hallway. + +"Miss ... Webb, isn't it? You wished to see ...?" + +"Tell me that it isn't true," broke in Rose, her voice trembling a +little in spite of her effort at self-control. + +"Tell you it isn't ... true?" echoed the other, with lifted eyebrows. +"I'm afraid that I don't quite underst ..." + +"But you _do_ understand, Miss Treville, why do you say that you don't? +It is in the paper." + +"Perhaps I meant to say that I do not understand why you should come +here to ask such a question, Miss Webb," was the icy response. + +Rose was silent. What answer could she make to this pertinent question? +She felt the hot tears starting to her eyes; but, even as she was on the +point of turning toward the door, with a little choked sob of bitter +chagrin, the other continued. Curiosity had unloosed her tongue. + +"Well? May I be so bold as to inquire what interest you may have in my +personal affairs, Miss Webb? Frankly, I am at a loss to understand the +meaning of this unexpected, and--I might say--somewhat unusual visit." + +"I ... I don't know as I _can_ explain," began Rose, hesitantly. "I ... +I felt that I had to see you, because ... I had a letter yesterday from +... from Dr. MacDonald...." + +"Ah." + +"Of course he writes to me, you _know_ that he is my guardian," she +answered the interruption with a flash of spirit. "He said in it that he +was coming home just as soon as he was able to ... to get well and ... +be married, and then that paper.... Oh, Miss Treville, surely it isn't +so. You wouldn't throw him over, when he is so far away, and ... and +sick?" + +The other's voice was not quite as steady as before, when she answered, +"I don't see why I am called upon to explain my ... to explain anything +to you, Miss Webb." + +"Then it _is_ true." The sentence rang out sharply. "And he doesn't +know. He thinks that you are waiting, and ..." + +"We need not discuss the matter, in fact I doubt if the doctor would +appreciate your ... shall we say 'championage'? The matter is between +him and me, wholly." + +"No, it is not, Miss Treville," flared Rose, with the angry color at +last flooding her cheeks. "I have heard people say that, if that story +is true, he is lucky to have escaped marrying you; but, just the same, +those of us who _really_ love him--you needn't look like that, of course +I love him--don't want to have him hurt, as any man would be who was +cast off like an old glove while he was far away and had no chance to +speak for himself. That is why I hoped it wasn't true, and that you +hadn't, perhaps, killed his faith in my kind. And that is the only +reason." + +Once started, her words had poured out as hot as lava which had broken +from a pent-up volcano. + +"So, that is the reason, the only reason, for your coming to me with +your impertinent question?" Miss Treville laughed oddly. "Really! Do you +know, I have always suspected that the little savage whom he brought +from somewhere in the backwoods regarded him as rather more than a +guardian, or a brother ... that _was_ the pretty fiction, wasn't it?" +she added, with honey coating the vinegar in her speech. + +Under the lash of the words Rose grew white again. Her hands clenched; +but, before she could answer, Miss Treville continued: + +"It really seems to me that you ought to thank me for stepping aside so +obligingly." + +The occupation of a high level in the civilized world, or in society, is +no proof of the Christian virtue of self-control,--that has been +demonstrated, in the case of a nation, all too clearly these last years; +and individuals are like nations, or vice versa. The feline that lies +dormant, as often in the finished product of city convention as in the +breast of the primeval woman, was now thrusting out its claws from the +soft paws of breeding. And Miss Marion Treville, leader of Back Bay +society, was rather enjoying the sensation. She had passed not a few +uncomfortable hours in company with her conscience, even while she was +yielding to the glamorous flame which surrounded her new suitor. It was +a real relief for her to be able to "take it out" on some one else, and +a victim had offered herself for the sacrifice, most opportunely. + +Rose shrank back as though she had been struck; then steadied herself +and said with an effort--for her throat and lips were dry, "I think that +perhaps you were right when you called me a 'little savage.' I know that +I feel like one in my heart now, and I think, too, that it would be a +real pleasure for me to ... to ..." + +The other stepped hastily back, and Rose laughed, bitterly. + +"Oh, please don't be frightened, I'm not going to scratch you. We wood +people don't fight with your kind of animal, they're too unpleasant at +close range." She paused, and then went on more steadily. "I came here +... I didn't know just why I was coming,--perhaps to plead with you for +Donald's sake. That doesn't look much as though I loved him ... in the +way you insinuate, does it? No, if I had, I should have won him away +from you, long ago. It would not have been difficult, I think." + +She spoke so coolly, and with such perfect confidence, that the other +winced. + +"There isn't anything more to be said, is there?" + +Was this the simple mountain girl, whose voice was now so suave and who +was smiling so icily? + +There was a pause, during which Miss Treville's trembling hand sought +behind her and found the servants' bell cord. + +"I am really glad that I called, Miss Treville, for you have succeeded +in convincing me that I have no occasion to be disturbed--on Donald's +account." + +"Miss Webb is going," said Miss Treville, formally, as the maid +appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AN INTERLUDE + + + All things by immortal power, + Near or far, + Hiddenly. + To each other linked are + That thou canst not stir a flower + Without troubling a star. + + A. QUILLER-COUCH. + +Life is so largely a thing of intermingling currents, of interwoven +threads, of reacting forces, that it is well-nigh impossible +understandingly to portray the life story of one person without +occasionally pausing to review, at least briefly, incidents in the lives +of others with which it is closely bound up. + +So it is with the story of the pilgrimage of Smiles. + +While, following her graduation, she was taking a course in district +nursing, giving freely of her new powers to the poor and suffering of a +great city, and taking, and passing, the State examination which gave +her the right to place the epigrammatic letters "R.N." after her name, +something was happening more than three thousand miles away, of which +she had no inkling, and yet which was closely linked with her +existence. + +Donald had, indeed, written in a manner to minimize his illness, which +had been a prolonged and serious one; so much so that he had, greatly +against his will, finally come to realize the necessity of his taking a +rest from his unremitting toil, and he had agreed to return home for a +vacation as soon as he should be well enough to make the long trip. + +Depressed by his wholly unaccustomed weakness the doctor sat, a +convalescent in his own hospital in Toul, one stifling July day. To his +physical debility was added the dragging distress of mind which comes at +times to those who are far away and receive no word from home. No +letters had reached him for weeks. Removed from the sphere of the +abnormal activity which had been his, and with nothing to do but sit and +think, Donald had, for some time, been examining his own heart with an +introspective gaze more searching than ever before. He felt that he had +been, above the average, blessed with happy relationships, deep +friendships and a highly trained ability to serve others--and he knew +that he could honestly say that he had turned this to full account. + +Besides, he was betrothed to a beautiful woman whom many coveted. When +his mind reached Marion Treville in its consideration, it stopped to +build a dream castle around her, a castle not in Spain, but in America. +He had earned the right to rest beside the road awhile, and enjoy the +good things of life. Marion was waiting for him at home, and whatever +doubts had, at one or another time, entered his mind as to their +perfect suitability, one for the other, they had long since been +banished. Distance had lent its enchantment, and he had supplied her +with the special virtues that he desired. His was a type of mind which +held to one thought at a time, and he had always possessed a fixedness +of purpose of a kind well calculated to carry through any plan which +that mind conceived. Combined, these characteristics made a form of +egotism, not one which caused him to overrate himself, but to plough +ahead regardless of the strength of the possible opposition. When he +returned to America he would marry Marion Treville immediately. No other +idea had seriously entered his mind since they had plighted their troth; +they had not been quite ready before, that was all, he told himself. + +It was in such a frame of mind, and with a growing eagerness for the day +when he might start for home to claim his reward, that he received her +long-delayed letter. What it said does not matter; but one paragraph +summed up her whole confession. "You cannot but agree with me that ours +was never the love of a man and woman whose hearts were attuned to one +another, and sang in perfect unison. We really drifted into an +engagement more because of propinquity than anything else. I am a +drone--the product of society at its worst--and you are one of the +workers, Donald. I feel quite sure that you will always gain your truest +happiness in your work. Although I know how you love children (and I +don't), I cannot think of you in the role of a married man, so I do +not, deep in my heart, believe that this is going to hurt you very +much--certainly I hope not. Indeed, I have a somewhat unpleasant +suspicion that some day you are going to bless me for having given you +back your freedom." + +Donald read the letter through, without allowing his expression to +change. Then he started to reread it, stopped, and suddenly crumpled it +up in his big fist. A low curse escaped his lips. It was heard by a +passing nurse, who hurried to him with the question, "Did you call, +doctor? Are you in pain?" + +"No. Let me alone," was his harsh answer, and the patient girl moved +away, with a little shake of her head. The great physician had not been +his cheerful, kindly self for some time. Perhaps she surmised, too, that +the mail which she had laid in his lap had not been all that he had +anticipated. + +With scarcely a move, he sat, staring in front of him, until the evening +shadows had turned the landscape to a dull monotone. Then he slowly +arose, and, with his mind so completely bent upon one subject that his +body was a thing apart and its weakness forgotten, stepped out into the +darkening city. + +Time had ceased to exist for him, as he walked the almost deserted +streets of Toul like a flesh-and-blood automaton. But the physical +exercise brought a quota of mental relief at last, and the cool night +air soothed his first burning pain and anger with its unconscious balm. +At length he was able to face the truth frankly, and then he suddenly +knew that all the time it was not his heart, so much as his pride, which +had been hurt. + +An hour earlier he would not have admitted a single doubt of his real +love for Marion Treville. Now he could not but admit that the initial +stab of bitterness was being healed by a real, though inexplicable, +sense of relief. He could even say that she had been right. His +affection for her had, indeed, been merely the outgrowth of life-long +intimacy. It was never the mating call of heart to heart; he had never +felt for her the overwhelming passion of a lover for the woman in whom, +for him, all earthly things are bound up. + +His walk became slower; he stopped. The deep blue-black sky had, of a +sudden, become the background for a softly glowing mind picture, and +there seemed to appear before him the glorious misty eyes, and +bewitchingly curved lips of ... Smiles. + +Her memory swept over him like a vision, and, even while he felt like a +traitor to self, came the wonderful realization that in his home city, +toward which his thoughts had so lately been bent, still lived the girl +whom he had loved--and had held apart within a locked and closely +guarded chamber of his heart--for years. It was as though scales, placed +before them by his own will, had dropped from his eyes. He almost cried +aloud his self-admission that he had loved her all the years from the +first moment when he saw her, a barefoot mountain girl, in Big Jerry's +rude cabin. + +And he was _free_! Free to be honest with his own soul, free to tell his +Rose of his love, and throw aside the masquerading cloak of adopted +brotherhood. How strange it was! The woman whom he had thought to marry +was gone from his life like a leaf torn from the binding, and the one +whom he had pretended to regard as a sister would become his mate. That +such would be the case he did not doubt now, even for an instant. That +she had always loved him, he was certain, and, with the warmth of his +wooing, he would fan that steady glow of childish affection into the +flame of womanly love which should weld their hearts together forever. + + * * * * * + +The days which followed before he was strong enough to journey to +Bordeaux, there to embark for America, seemed to drag by like eternity; +but Donald was Westbound at last. He was going home, home to a new life, +made perfect by a great love. The deadly submarines of the world's +outlaw, lurking under the sea like loathsome phantasies of an evil mind, +held no terrors for him, nor could the discomforts caused by the tightly +closed hatches and enshrouding burlap, which made the ship a pent-up +steambox, until the danger zone was passed, depress his spirits. + +The steamer crept as had the days on shore; but there came an afternoon +when she made port at last, and, spurred by a consuming eagerness, he +hastened to his apartment. + +He had cabled the news of his departure, and in the mail box were many +letters awaiting him. Feverishly, he looked them over for one in _her_ +dear handwriting. To his unreasonable disappointment there was none, but +there were several which required immediate reading--among them one from +his sister Ethel, and one from his old friend, Philip Bentley. + +The first contained disquieting news. His little niece, Muriel, had been +very ill with typhoid fever and, although Dr. Bentley had pulled her +through the sickness successfully, she was still far from well, and +apparently not gaining at all. + +He opened the other, expecting it to concern the case. But the note did +not mention it. It was only a few lines and read: + + "Dear old Don: + + I hear that you are 'homeward bound.' Bully! As soon as you reach + Boston, and can spare me a moment, I want to talk to you about an + important matter. + + Call me by telephone, like a good fellow, and I'll run over to your + apartment at once and tell you what is on my mind. + + Yours, + P. B." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +DONALD'S HOMECOMING + + +"By the Lord Harry, but I'm glad to see you back again, safe and sound, +you good-for-nothing old reprobate." + +True to his written statement, Philip had come to Donald's apartment as +fast as a taxicab could bring him, after he had heard his old friend's +voice over the wire. Now the two men gripped hands, hard, and then--for +just a moment--flung their arms around each other's shoulders in a rare +outward display of their deep mutual affection. + +Then Philip held his senior away at arms' length and said, with +masculine candor but with a look of sympathy in his eyes, "Don, you poor +devil, you've been killing yourself over there. Don't tell _me_. I've a +mind to appoint myself your physician and order you to bed for a month." + +"Good Lord, do I look as bad as that?" laughed the other. "If I do, +looks are deceitful, for I feel fit as a fiddle. I need only one thing +to make a complete new man of me." + +"And that is ...?" + +"A secret, at present." + +The two seated themselves opposite each other, and Philip continued, +"I've managed to keep myself pretty well posted on the work that you've +been doing, without knowing any of the details of your life--you're a +rotten correspondent. Come, did you have any 'hairbreadth' 'scapes or +moving accidents by field and flood?" + +"Nary one. My life has been one dead, monotonous waste." + +"Like ... the deuce it has. Come, I've got just ten minutes to stay; +tell me the whole detailed history of your two years and a half. Knowing +your natural verbosity, I should say that it would take you just about +half that time, which will leave me the balance for my own few remarks." + +"Five minutes? I could tell you the whole history of my life in that +time. But, before I start, I want to ask you about my little niece, +Muriel? I've just been reading a letter from Ethel, which seems to +indicate that they are rather worried about her; but, when I called her +by long distance, she either couldn't, or wouldn't tell me anything +definite." + +"I don't think that there is any real occasion for being disturbed," +answered Philip, quietly. "Although I'll confess frankly that things +haven't been going just right, and I'm not sorry to have you back and in +charge of the case. Muriel made the acquaintance of a typhus bug--the +Lord knows how--and, although I succeeded in getting the best of the +fever fairly quickly, thanks to the able assistance of that nurse whom +you swear by ..." + +"Miss Merriman?" + +"Yes, she's a wonder, isn't she? Well, as I said, we took care of the +fever, all right; but the cerebral affection has been more persistent, +and she hasn't convalesced as you would expect in a twelve-year-old +child. She seems to be laboring under a sort of nervous depression, not +so much physical as mental ... in fact, a psychos. It's common enough in +older people, of course; but hanged if I ever saw anything just like it +in a perfectly normal, and naturally happy child." + +"H-m-m-m. What are the symptoms?" + +"Psychological, all of them. She mopes; seems to take no healthy +interest in anything, and, as a result, has no appetite; bursts out +crying over the most trivial things--such as the chance of you're being +blown up by a submarine on the way home--and frequently for no cause at +all. Of course I packed the family off to the shore, as soon as she was +able to be moved, in the belief that the change of scene and the sea air +would effect a cure, but it hasn't. I can't find a thing wrong with her, +physically, nor could Morse. I took him down on my own hook, in +consultation, one day. It's a rather unusual case of purely +psychological depression, and in my opinion all she needs is ..." + +"A generous dose of Smiles," interrupted Donald. + +"By thunder, you've struck it," cried Philip, as he gave the arm of his +chair a resounding thump. "What an ass I've been not to have thought of +that before, particularly as she has been so constantly in my thoughts. +It's another case of a thing being too close to one for him to see it." + +Donald stiffened suddenly. He held the match, with which he was about to +light a cigar, poised in mid-air until the flame reached his fingers, +and then blew it out, unused. + +"In fact, it was about her, Don, that I was so anxious to see you," the +other went on. His own nervousness made him unconscious of the effect +which his words had produced on Donald. "Of course, she's practically of +legal age now; but I know that she still regards you as her guardian and +that in a sense you stand _in loco parentis_ toward her. Certainly she +regards your word as law. So I thought that, as she is practically alone +in the world, it would be the only right and honorable thing to ... to +speak to you, first." + +"To speak to me ... _first_?" echoed Donald, a trifle unsteadily, as he +struck another match and watched its flame, with unseeing eyes, until +it, too, burned his fingers. + +"Yes. Great Scott, can't you guess what I'm driving at? The plain fact +is ... is that I love her, Don. I ... I want to marry her." + +The words smote the older man's senses like a bolt from a clear sky, and +they reeled, although he managed, somehow, to keep outwardly calm. + +"You ... you haven't told her ... yet ... that you love her?" he managed +to say, after a moment. + +"No. At least, not directly; but I guess that she knows it. I wanted, +first, to be sure that you would approve ... perhaps even sponsor my +suit, for, although I mean, of course, to stand or fall on the strength +of my own case, I know that she worships you, as a brother, and might be +influenced by your attitude. You understand, don't you, old man?" + +Donald nodded, then asked slowly, "Does ... does Smiles love you, Phil?" + +"Yes, I think that I can honestly say that I believe she does. Of course +no word of love has ever passed between us, but ... well, you know how +it is." + +With a mighty effort of his will, Donald conquered the trembling that +had seized upon his body, and--on his third attempt--calmly lit the +cigar. But his thoughts were running like a tumultuous millrace. "Blind, +egotistical, self-confident fool," they shouted. "That something like +this should have happened is the most natural thing in the world, and it +has been farthest from your mind." + +He remained silent so long that Philip was forced to laugh, a bit +uneasily. + +"I know well enough that I'm not half worthy of her--no man could +be--but I hope that I'm not altogether ineligible, and I'm sure that I +love her more than any one else could." At his words Donald winced. +"I'll do my best to make her life a happy one, if she'll have me--you +know that, old fellow. Well," he laughed again, "say something, can't +you? I should almost get the idea that you were jealous, if I didn't +also know that that is absurd. Your engagement to Marion Treville ... I +suppose that you don't want to talk about that, but you know how deeply +I feel for you." + +Donald shook himself together, mentally, and made an effort to respond +with convincing heartiness, although he found that his words sounded +unnaturally, even to his own ears. + +"Of course, you have my consent, if it's worth anything. If our little +Rose does love you, I am sure that you can make her happy--you're a +splendid chap, Phil, and I--and I appreciate what you have done for her +while I was away. She wrote me all about it." + +He stretched out his hand, and the other started from his chair, and +wrung it heartily. + +"Thanks, old man. You give me an added quota of courage, and I wish that +I might go to her this minute; but I've been called out of town on an +important case. I really shouldn't have taken the time even to stop +here, but I simply had to see you to-night. Love is an awful thing, +isn't it?" + +"Yes," he answered, dully. "Love is always impatient ... I know that +myself. Perhaps I ... that is, if I can get her ... Rose, I think that I +will take her down to Ethel's with me, to-night, and you can ... can see +her there. Where is she staying now?" + +"With Miss Merriman's family, if she hasn't been called out on a case +since morning. She's been doing district nursing, principally; but +she's already had two private cases, you know." + +Donald did not, and the realization of how far he had drifted away from +his old, intimate association with Smiles' affairs, brought his heart an +added stab of pain. + +"The number is Back Bay, 4315." He glanced at his watch and then +exclaimed, "Heavens, I've got to catch a train at the Trinity Place +station in five minutes. Be ready to furnish bail for my chauffeur as +soon as he is arrested for over-speeding. 'Night. I'll see you at +Manchester in a few days ... that is if ..." + +His words trailed off down the corridor, the front door closed and +Donald was alone. No, not alone. Philip had gone, but the room was +peopled with a multitude of ghosts and haunting spectres which he had +left behind. The doctor had only to close his eyes in order to see them, +gibbering and dancing on his hopes, which had been laid low by his +friend's eager disclosure. Another loved her, another wanted to marry +her, and that other could truthfully say that he believed she cared for +him. No spoken words of love may have passed between them, but Donald +knew well how unessential these were when heart called to heart. + +This was his homecoming! + +It were as though the eyes of his soul had been permitted, for a brief +time, to behold a dazzling celestial light, which had suddenly failed, +leaving the darkness blacker than before. The words which he had +planned to utter had turned to bitter ashes in his mouth. He had to face +the truth squarely. Rose was not, had never been, for him. It had been +mere madness for him even to dream of such a thing. Had she not accepted +him as a brother, and given him the frank affection of such +relationship, which precludes love of the other sort? + +His heart hurt and he felt old and weary again. Somewhere, hidden in a +cabinet, was a bottle of whiskey, he remembered, and he sought it out +and poured himself a generous glassful. But, when he raised it to his +lips, the vision face of Smiles, as she had looked that first night on +the mountain, when she told Big Jerry and Judd that "nary a drap o' thet +devil's brew would ever be in house of hers," appeared before him, and, +with a groan, he set it down, untasted. + +Returning to his living-room, he sat a long time in mental readjustment, +which was brought about with many a wrench at his heart; and when, at +last, his old iron will--which had been weakened a little by illness and +further softened by love--had once again been tempered in the crucible +of anguish, the lines on his prematurely seamed face were deeper, and in +his dark gray eyes was a new expression of pain. + + * * * * * + +In compliance with his telephoned request, Rose had packed her suit +case, and was all ready to accompany him when he arrived at the +Merrimans' apartment in a taxicab, to take her with him to the North +Station to catch the nine o'clock train. She was irrepressibly the +child, for the time being, and in her cheeks bloomed roses so colorful +that Gertrude Merriman accused her of painting, while knowing well +enough that joy needs no artistry. + +"I'm almost _too_ happy," she cried after hearing his voice over the +wire, and proceeded to dance around the room, to the impromptu chant, +"Donald, dear, is here, is here. Donald, dear, is here." + +"Are you going to kiss him?" laughed her friend. But Rose was not to be +teased, and answered, "Kiss him? I'll smother him with kisses. Isn't he +my brother, and isn't he home again after being away two and a half +years?" + +When the apartment bell rang, it was Rose who ran to answer it, and +whose sweet young voice, saying, "Oh, come up _quick_," Donald heard +thrilling over the wire. His heart leaped, but his will steadied its +increased pulsations. It leaped again when he reached the third floor, +and the girl of his dreams threw herself upon him with laughter which +was suspiciously like weeping, and with the smother of kisses, which she +could not restrain nor he prevent, although each burned and seared his +very soul. + +She backed into the room and pulled him after her by the lapels of his +coat; but, as the brighter light struck upon his face, she stopped with +widening eyes, through which he could read the troubled question in her +mind. + +"Oh, my poor big brother. I didn't realize ... I mean, how you must have +suffered. Poor dear, you don't have to tell me how ill you have been, so +far away from all of us who love you." + +Her pitying words drove the last nail in his crucified hopes. Not only +were they, all too obviously, merely those of a child who loved him with +a sister's love, but they told him how changed, wan and aged he was; one +who was, in fact, no longer fitted to mate with radiant youth. + +"'Old, ain't I, and ugly?'" He imitated Dick Deadeye with a laughing +voice, but the laugh was not true. + +"Old and ugly?" she repeated, in horror. "Donald, how _can_ you? You're +tired out, that is all; and as for this--" she lightly touched the sheen +of silvery gray at his temples, where the alchemy of Time and stress had +made its mark--"it makes you look so ... so distinguished that I am +ashamed of my frivolously familiar manner of greeting you. But I just +couldn't help it, and I promise not to embarrass you again. Yes, you +_were_ embarrassed. I could read it in your face." + +There was but a moment for conversation with the others, and they were +whirled off to catch the train for the North Shore resort. + +When they were seated, face to face, in the Pullman chair car, there +came a moment of silence, during which each studied the other covertly. +Donald decided that, physically, the girl had not greatly changed from +the picture of her which he had borne away in his heart. The passing +years had merely deepened the charm of the soft, waving hair, whose rich +and glinting chestnut strands swept low on her broad forehead and +nestled against the nape of her neck; the slender patrician nose and +wonderfully shadowed eyes; the smooth contour of cheek and rounded chin; +and the tender glory which still trembled, as in the old days, on her +sensitive lips. But, in her poise and speech, after the first rush of +impetuous childlike eagerness had spent itself, he discovered a new +maturity, and he realized that, where he had left a child, he found a +woman, whose heart was no longer worn upon her sleeve. True, her +gratitude and affection for him were unaltered. They showed in every +word and look, and once the thought came to him that he might yet win +the castle of Desire, if he should only determine to enter the lists +against Philip. The primal man in him cried out against, and might have +overcome, his better nature, which whispered that this would be +treachery to a friend who had played fair, and was worthy, if there had +not always been before his mind the consideration that the fight would +be hopeless. Rose was not for him; she loved another. + +And the girl? She cheered him with her smile, and loved him for the +dangers he had passed as he, in the hope of in that subject finding a +vent for his emotions, told her of the work he had been doing. But in +her heart she was deeply disturbed. The tired, drawn look on his strong +face would pass away, she felt; but the sight of the expression of pain +in his eyes gave her thoughts pause. Had Marion Treville's faithlessness +struck so deep? At the memory of her interview with the woman, Smiles' +own eyes changed, and lost their quiet tenderness. + + * * * * * + +Morning had come, and the sunlight danced like a myriad host of tiny +sprites, clad in cloth of gold over the broad blue bosom of the Atlantic +and into the windows of little Muriel's cheerful bedroom. The door +opened softly, and Rose, in trim uniform and cap, with its three black +bands, slipped into the room, silently motioning the man in the hall +outside to keep back out of sight. The child, thin and pale on her snowy +bed, turned her head listlessly and looked at the intruder. + +Suddenly the suggestion of a smile touched her colorless lips, and +lighted her unnaturally heavy eyes. She sat up with a glad cry of +surprise and welcome, "Why, it's my own Smiles! Wherever did you come +from; are you going to make us a visit? Oh, I'm so glad." + +"Yes, darling. I got so tired and grumpy up in the hot city that I just +had to come down here to be cheered up. Will you help do it?" + +"'Course I will. Why, just _seeing_ you makes me want to cheer." She +quickly swung her slender legs over the bedside. "Oh, now if dear Uncle +Don were only safe home again it would be perfect. I've worried and +worried about his getting hit by a bomb or being blown up by a +submarine. I wish ..." + +"And, presto! your wish is granted," laughed Donald, as he ran into the +room and caught his small niece up in an old-time bear hug. + +"Oh, oh, oh. It's better than a fairy tale. I'm so happy I could die, +but instead I'm going to get well right off. I'm well _now_; where are +my clothes?" + +The little bare feet sought for bedroom slippers, and the light curls +bobbed energetically as she enunciated, "Now that I've got you two I +mean to keep you forever and ever. If you, Uncle Don, would only mar +..." + +The man made haste to clap his hand over the offending mouth; but he was +too late. Rose had heard, and, with glowing cheeks, replied quickly, +"But you forget that Uncle Don adopted me as a little sister, long ago." + +She slipped her hand through his arm and pressed it close to her for a +moment, before laughing gayly, "Run along, man. Milady is about to dress +and this is no place for you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE VALLEY OF INDECISION + + +Early evening it was, several days later, evening of a sultry, stifling +day, which had escaped the bounds of longitude and invaded even the +North Shore. The open ocean, itself, seemed to have forgotten its +habitual unrest and yielded to the general languor. From the Thayers' +summer home--a glorified bungalow, broad of veranda and shingled +silvery-olive, atop a long, terraced bank--it had the appearance of a +limitless mirror, reflecting the unblemished blue infinity of the sky. +Only the never-ceasing series of vague white lines which ever crept up +the shelving beach, to vanish like half-formed dreams, showed that, +although the mighty deep slept, its bosom rose and fell as it breathed. + +The sky was a hazy horizon blue, unblemished save for a few vaporous +clouds far in the west; the sun, well toward the end of its journey, was +hazy, too, a thing of mystery; in the far eastern distance the broad +Atlantic softened to a hazy violet-gray which, in turn, blended, almost +without a line of demarcation, into the still more distant heavens. + +Far out, above the waters, a solitary gull circled with slow, sweeping +curves, and now and again planed to the surface of the sea and struck +from it a faint white spark. + +On the screened-in veranda, the members of the family, which now +included Rose, sat or reclined, in attitudes of indolence, the men in +negligee shirts and white flannels, the women in light dresses. +Rose--who had, the day before, officially declared herself "off" the +case; but had stayed on, a guest, at the general solicitation--wore a +white dimity faintly sprinkled with her favorite rosebuds. + +Her ex-patient sat on a little stool close by her side, a book of fairy +stories resting on her elevated bare knees. The companionship of her +beloved Smiles had already brought the warm color of health back to her +cheeks and banished the listless look from her eyes. Her mother and Mr. +MacDonald, Senior, were reading. Rose, chin resting on her cupped palm, +was gazing seaward with a dreamy, far-away expression in her eyes, as +blue as the sea itself. Donald sat back of her, and scarcely turned his +gaze from the even contour of her cheek and neck and the shimmering +glory of her hair, as he pulled leisurely at his cigar. + +Only little Don showed signs of activity; for, with the boundless energy +of four-and-a-half years, he was skidding and rolling industriously from +one end of the porch to the other on a kiddie-car--a relic of the year +before, and now much too small for him. With more or less dexterity he +was weaving his way in and out among the various obstacles, animate and +otherwise. + +After looking for many silent minutes at the girl he loved, Donald said, +tritely, "A penny for your thoughts, Smiles." + +"Sir, you value them too high. I was thinking about you," she laughed. + +"A likely story! I know well enough that your mind was far away from the +present spot--the far-off expression on your face is indication enough +of that. Furthermore, I'll wager that I can guess pretty nearly where +they were." + +It was a random shot, but he was disquieted to observe that it brought a +faint blush in her cheeks. The added color, soft and lovely in itself, +was darkly reflected on his heart. + +Jumping up, Smiles cried, with a mock pout, "I shan't stay here to be +made the subject of a demonstration of clairvoyancy. My thoughts are my +own, and I mean to keep them so, sir." + +As she ran into the house Donald's eyes followed her, moodily. And if he +had, indeed, possessed the power of divination which he had laid +pretence to, the expression in them, and the shadow on his spirit, would +have been justified. + +Rose ran lightly upstairs, and, as she approached her room, drew from +within her waist a letter. There was something both mysterious and +childlike in the manner that she next opened one of the drawers of her +dressing table and, taking out a box which held almost all of her modest +treasures, started to place the letter with them. + +Instead, however, she paused to lift out a neat little package +containing a score or more of other epistles, tied together with a white +ribbon. For a moment she hesitated, as though she were both mentally and +physically weighing the objects held in either hand. A shadow of strange +uncertainty came into her eyes, the outward expression of an inward +uncertainty foreign to her nature. Slowly, she turned from her +reflection in the mirror and dropped down on the edge of the daintily +counterpaned bed. With hesitating fingers she untied the ribbon from the +package and began to glance through the unbound letters, pausing at +intervals to read stray paragraphs from them. Each one began and ended +almost the same--"Dear little Smiles" and "Affectionately your friend, +Donald." + +There was the one which contained the allegory of the steep path--which +now lay behind her; the one in which he told her of little Donald's +advent into the world and of his own betrothal to Marion Treville, and +as she read that sentence which held so much of import in the lives of +both of them, she sighed, "Poor Don. He hasn't mentioned her; but her +faithlessness must have struck deep, for he is, oh, so changed and more +reserved." There were other letters filled with the spirit of +_camaraderie_, and then the later ones, strong, simple, with their +stories of others' sacrifice in the great cause of humanity. + +When the last one was read and laid upon the others, she sat with them +in her lap for a moment, musing. The suspicion of tears shone in her +eyes as she finally shook her head, and, evening them carefully, retied +them. + +"No," she whispered, half aloud, "I mustn't be foolish. He's just my +brother, that is the way he cares for me. It has always been like that. +And I ... I mustn't be foolish." + +Almost angrily she brushed away the single tear which had started its +uncertain course down her cheek. + +With a gesture of resolution, she stood up and placed the package in its +box. The other letter was about to follow; but, as she started to lay it +down, she changed her mind, and, with the flush again mounting her +cheeks, took it from the envelope, which bore a special delivery stamp, +postmarked in Boston that very morning. + +Opening it, she read: + + "My dearest Smiles: + + Will you be the bearer of a message from me to your kind hostess? + As you know, she has invited me down to Manchester-by-the-Sea for + the week-end, as a surprise for Donald, and I have heretofore been + unable to give a definite answer. Now I have banished everything + else from my mind and shall arrive about seven-thirty. + + You wonder, perhaps, why I haven't written this direct to her? In + answering my own question I have a confession--yes, _two_ + confessions to make. A poor excuse is better than none, and I have + sent the message to Ethel, through you, merely as an excuse for + writing you. + + To my own surprise I have discovered that I have suddenly become a + moral coward, and am obliged to descend to subterfuges in order to + bolster up my courage. This isn't a usual thing with me, I think, + but neither is the occasion. I've been wanting and planning to tell + you something, face to face, for a long time; but at the crucial + moment my courage has failed each time. I could not nerve myself to + bear the possibility of the wrong answer. + + Now I cannot put it off any longer and I am forced to tell you that + 'something' in this manner. It is a simple message, dear, but it + has meant more than any other to the world through all ages, and it + means more to me than all the world, now. I love you, Rose,--I want + to marry you. + + There is not anything more that need be said; you can imagine all + the rest that I would say if I were with you in person, as I shall + be with you in spirit as you read those words. I suspect that even + they were not necessary. You must have guessed my love, which has + grown steadily during these past three years, and have understood + why I could not speak it before. It was not merely that the ethics + of our relation forced me to keep silent; but I have felt, since + you are situated as you are, and Donald is still morally, if not + legally, your guardian and protector, I should speak to him first. + I have done so. My love for you was almost the first thing that he + heard about, on reaching home. And Smiles, dearest, he has gladly + given his consent to my suit and wished me luck. + + Now that I have written the fateful message, my courage is + restored, in part at least, and I want to hear the answer from your + own sweet lips. I can scarcely wait to hear it, for presumptuous as + it is--I cannot help hoping that it will be the one I so desire. I + cannot help believing that you do care for me. + + Please don't run away, dear. I want to see you, alone, as soon as I + reach Manchester. + + With all my heart and soul I am + Your lover, Philip." + + +Smiles slowly replaced the note, her first love letter, in its envelope, +laid it in the box and locked this in the drawer. With her hands resting +on the dresser she leaned forward and looked searchingly into her own +eyes, as though trying to read her very heart. Her lips moved and formed +the words, "He cannot help hoping that the answer will be the one he +desires. He knows that I _do_ care for him. Yes, he cannot help knowing +it; I am too simple to hide my feelings, and he has been so sweet that I +could not help ... but ... oh, I wish that I hadn't got to tell him ... +to-night." + +Meanwhile Donald had been sitting for many minutes in the silence born +of laboring thoughts. He had guessed Smiles' secret in part, but not in +its entirety, and the bitter unhappiness, which had had its inception in +Philip's disclosure, lay over his soul like a pall. + +His father was the first to speak, and his words caused Donald to start, +for they seemed to be the result of telepathic communication. + +"You told us, once, that she wasn't a witch, but, by Jove, there's both +witchery and healing in that smile of hers, Don. Look at Muriel now. +It's nothing less than a miracle what the very presence of Rose has done +for her." + +"I was wrong," answered Donald, shortly, whereupon Ethel laid aside her +book and joined in the conversation in a low voice, so that the absorbed +Muriel might not hear. + +"You love her, Don, it's perfectly obvious. What are you waiting for? +Now that Marion has behaved so shamefully, it is my dearest hope that +you will marry Rose. I didn't mean to speak of it; but, really, you are +changing, Donald, and I don't want to think of your becoming a +self-centred old bachelor." + +"Ethel's right," supplemented his father. "I'm only surprised that you +haven't asked her before. You've been in the same house with her for a +whole week. Don't let one ... er ... unfortunate experience discourage +you." + +Donald carefully knocked the ashes from his pipe, got up, walked to the +railing, and stood with his back toward them. + +Then he laughed, a trifle bitterly. + +"Thanks for the advice. I won't pretend that I don't ... care for her; +but I can't ask her to marry me, as you suggest--that is, not now." + +"Why not, I should like to know?" demanded his sister, impatiently. + +"I can't explain, either; but there is a reason. I am bound in honor. +Please don't say anything more about it." + +But Ethel was not to be silenced so easily. + +"I don't know what you are talking about; but it's nonsense, anyway," +she answered. "Why, she worships you. Any one can see that." + +"Worships me!" echoed Donald, with sarcastic inflection. "What's the +sense in exaggerating like that, Ethel? I suppose that she is fond of me +in a way; the way you are, but ..." + +"I never suspected you of lacking courage before," interrupted the +other. "If you haven't the nerve to ask that child yourself, _I_ will. I +guess that I'm a better judge of feminine nature than you, Donald." + +"You failed to prove it once before," he retorted, and instantly added, +with a tone of unusual contrition, "I am sorry I said that. It was +unnecessary and unworthy. But, really, I can't allow you to play Mrs. +John Alden to my Miles Standish. There is a reason ..." + +"Oh, you men. You're all alike, when you climb on some sort of a high +horse and become mysterious. I don't know what you are talking +about--perhaps you are deluding yourself with an absurdly chivalrous +notion about being her guardian--but I tell you this. A normal girl, who +is as full of life as Rose, can't be expected to be like the wishy-washy +heroines of some murky novel, remain faithful unto death to her first +unrequited love, and turn into a sweetly spiritual old maid, waiting for +the hero to come and claim her. ''Tain't accordin' ter huming nater,' as +Captain Jim says. The mating call is too strong, and she is sure to +respond to the love note of another sooner or later;--don't flatter +yourself that you are the only man in Smiles' creation. She's as sweet +and pure as any girl could be, but she's human, like the rest of us ... +that's what makes me love her so, and, unless 'you speak for yourself, +John' ..." + +"I can't, Ethel, I ... s-s-sh." + +The girl's light footsteps on the descending stairs caused him to break +off with a low note of warning, and hardly had he resumed his seat +before she was sitting on the arm of the chair and rumpling his wavy +hair, as naturally as a child, or a sister. + +Watching him closely, Ethel saw the veins begin to swell on the back of +his muscular hand, as his fingers gripped the other arm of the chair. +She sighed, and then a look of wondering distress came into her face as +the thought flashed unbidden through her mind, "I wonder if it is +possible that he made some unfortunate, entangling alliance in France, +after he heard from Marion? It isn't impossible. Men are often caught on +the rebound like that." + +Donald was the first to make an effort to introduce a new subject into +the thoughts of all, by saying, "Doesn't the _Water Witch_ look pretty +in this light?" as he pointed to a trim little eighteen-foot race-about, +whose highly polished mahogany sides, free from paint, reflected the +water which reflected them. "I don't know as I have properly thanked you +for having her put in commission for me, Ethel." + +"I thought that it would please you, and I had them overhaul and rig her +as soon as I learned that you were coming home." + +"Please me! Well, I should say 'vraiment.' Come, Smiles, let's run away +from all the world beside, and I'll show you my skill as a skipper." + +Ethel sent a meaning glance in the direction of her father, but he was +laughing; "'Skill as a skipper,' indeed, on such an evening as this! He +would be an amateur, for certain, who couldn't steer with one arm free. +Whew, there isn't a breath." + +"There is going to be, and not many minutes from now. Unless I miss my +guess we'll have a thunderstorm, and a west wind which will make short +work of this humidity. There, feel that breeze? Ouch, you little devil, +get off my foot. It may be large but it wasn't built for a kiddie-car +racetrack." + +The obstacle had caused an upset, and baby Don, more angry than hurt, to +be sure, set up a howl and ran to Smiles' arms for comfort. + +"You'll spoil that baby," growled his uncle. "Well, what do you say, are +you coming?" + +He stood up, and stretched his powerful frame in anticipation of the +exercise that he loved. + +"If you don't mind, Donald, I'd ... I'd rather not ... to-night," +answered Rose. + +"I'm afraid that you don't like the ocean; I rather thought that you +wouldn't," he responded gently, for he had in mind the fact that both of +her parents had met their death by drowning. The girl sat silently for a +little while, with her eyes fixed upon the waters, here and there upon +the surface of which had begun to appear shadowy streaks of varying +tones, as though the Master Painter were deftly sweeping a mighty, +invisible brush across the pictured surface. Interblending shades of +soft green, gray and violet came and disappeared. + +Without turning her head, she answered, pensively, "It is very, very +beautiful and I love it--in a way. But I am afraid of it, too. Yes, I +like the lordly mountains better, Don. To me there is always something +sinister about the sea, even when it is in as peaceful a mood as this; +storms come upon it so swiftly, and it has taken so many precious +lives." + +Donald laid an understanding hand upon her shoulder for a brief moment. + +"I won't urge you," he said. "Let's go for a little walk, then." + +"I ... I can't do that, either, Donald. It was meant to be a surprise, +but ... Dr. Bentley is coming down from Boston to-night, and I promised +... that is, he has asked me to ... to go somewhere with him." Rose was +blushing again. + +"Oh, I see. I didn't know that Phil was coming, although, of course, he +has a standing invitation, and knows that I'm always delighted to see +him," answered Donald, in a tone which he made natural with an effort. + +"I invited him especially," broke in Ethel. "And he accepted in a letter +to Rose." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE STORM AND THE SACRIFICE + + +Baby Don put an end to the moment of strained silence which succeeded. +He laid hold of two of Smiles' fingers and began to pull at her, while +saying insistently, "Come down to the beach with me, Aunty Smiles, and +hear the waves ro-er." This was a favorite pastime with him. + +His grandfather smiled. "The waves are 'ro-ering' as gently as any +sucking dove, to-night." + +But the baby was not to be turned from his design, and tugged +persistently until Rose was obliged to rise, laughing. Muriel also +started up. + +"I'll go down with you and try out the _Water Witch_ alone--unless, that +is, either of you want to come along," said Donald. + +His father and Ethel refused, with a show of indignation over the +begrudging form which the invitation had taken, and he was not sorry. +Neither man nor girl could find anything to say as they walked side by +side to the beach, and the former launched the dory tender. As he put +off she waved him a cheery good-by, and sent her low voice across the +broadening water: + +"Come back to us soon. And be careful. It is beginning to get rough +already." + +With a note in his voice which she did not understand, he called back, +"Perhaps I'll sail straight over to France. You wouldn't care." + +"Foolish man. You know that I would," she cried, and then turned to join +the children in their game of skipping pebbles. + +Donald sent the skiff through the choppy waves with vigorous strokes and +shot her around at the last moment for a perfect landing. The mainsail +and jib went up with rapid jerks while the rings rattled their protest. +The strenuous physical exercise brought him temporary relief; but, when +he had cast off, taken the tiller and after a few moments of idle +jockeying back and forth in the light puffs, squared away for the run +seaward before the rising wind, his gloomy thoughts returned, to settle +like a flock of phantom harpies and feast on his brain. + +Out of nothing grew a vision of Judd's chalky, troubled face, and he +felt a sudden rush of sympathy for the crude mountaineer, who had +likewise loved and lost. "Smiles wasn't to blame then. She isn't to +blame _now_. She never led either of us on," he said aloud; but his +clenched teeth cut through the end of his cigar, nevertheless. With only +his moody thought to bear him company, Donald steered seaward. + +Starting slowly, the racing craft was momentarily given new impetus by +swelling wind and following wave; but the man paid no heed to the things +which should have served him as a warning--the higher heaving of the +waters, now as gray and as cloudy green as a dripping cliff, and touched +with flecks of milky spume; and the uneven tugging of the sail. When he +did become aware of the swift change which had taken place, hardly five +minutes had passed from the time he had started out, yet a quick glance +behind him disclosed a new heaven and a new earth and sea; the old had +passed away. + +Where else is nature's stupendous power so evident as in the sinister +speed with which the armies of the tempest make their swift advance, +company on company, regiment on regiment, division on division? + +In the moments which had passed unmarked by him in his absorption, the +whole western sky had become overcast and blackened by the vaporous army +of invasion, whose forecoursing streams of cavalry skirmishers were +already high over his head. The earth had lost its laughing colors, and +seemed to lie cowering, with its head covered with a dull mantle, and +the sea had accepted the challenge of the storm clouds and was beginning +to leap forward in swirling, gloomy waves. + +With a strong steady pull on the tiller, Donald brought the little craft +around in a sweeping curve and headed into the wind, which had suddenly +become chill and moist. The boat tilted sharply, and a dash of spray +leaped the bow and, changing back to water, ran down the leeward side of +the cockpit. A drop of rain splashed on his bared forearm, and then +another and another. Through the dark, serried clouds came a dagger +thrust of fire, to be followed by a distant detonation which bore his +heart back to the shuddering fields of France. + +The new picture was impressed on his mind as on the sensitized film of a +camera, and simultaneously the action of distant figures were registered +upon it. Toiling up the steep bank to the cottage was a marionette made +recognizable as Muriel by a tiny dash of red at the waist and on the +head. For an instant he wondered if Smiles and his little namesake had +already reached the house. Then he caught sight of them, still on the +beach. There was fully a quarter of a mile of water between him and the +shore, but the distance was being cut down bravely by the race-about, +whose specialty was going to windward in a blow. Steadied by her racing +keel, she cut through the waves like a knife. + +The child, a mere gray dot, was apparently fleeing as fast as his sturdy +little legs could carry him from the pursuing girl. + +In spite of his bitterness of soul, Donald's lips curved into a smile as +they formed the words, "Ah, the battle is on, once more. Rose has +insisted that they hurry up to the house and Don has said, 'I won't.' +Jerusalem, look at him kite it!" + +At that instant a tremulous curtain of light was let down from heaven, +momentarily, and the two tiny figures were disclosed as clear as by day. +He saw the baby dodging adroitly under Smiles' outstretched arms, and +heading out onto the narrow pier, to which was attached a float for +rowboats. + +"He's got his 'mad' up," thought the man, as he veered off a point so as +to get a better view. "He isn't afraid of thunder, lightning or of +rain--or anything else, and it would be just like him to run right off +the ... Great God in heaven, he's done it!" he shouted aloud and sprang +to his feet, and almost lost his grip on the straining tiller. Even as +he had been thinking, the light had grown again, and he saw the child, +halfway down the pier, with a rebellious jerk tear himself loose from +the clutching grasp on his blouse, lose his balance, stumble and roll +from the incline into the now surging water. + +The _Water Witch_ luffed sharply, and her sail snapped with a report +like a pistol shot. Without taking his horrified gaze from the unreal +picture which the ghastly lightning illumined, Donald instinctively +steadied the boat, and, with his powerful body strained forward as +though he were urging the craft to greater effort. "God, God, God." The +words came through his clenched teeth, half prayer, half curse at the +Fate which held him helpless to act--and the wind snatched them from his +lips and bore them away, shrieking in malicious madness. + +The darkness fell, blotting out the scene. Then the lightning flared +again, and, in the brief white second that it lasted, he saw Rose climb +onto a bench against the railing of the pier, and leap into the water. + +"God, she can't swim a stroke," groaned the man, as he pounded his left +hand against the gunwale until the blood came through the abraded skin. +Plunged in darkness again, the man, whom Rose had called unimaginative, +suffered all the untold agony of soul which had been hers during the +moment in which she had been forced to make up her mind and carry out +the act, only his anguish was the more intense, for hers was the quick +action and his the forced inaction of a man bound to a stake, within +full sight of a tragedy being enacted upon a loved one. The distance +between the boat and shore was not so great but that he could see +everything that was occurring; but, with the wind dead ahead and blowing +viciously, he might as well have been in another world for aught that he +could do. + +The spell of darkness, doubly black after the flash, seemed like an +eternity to Donald. In reality it was as brief as the others, yet, when +the light came, it disclosed other forms in action. A youth, whom he had +vaguely noticed working around a rowboat on the beach as he put out, was +plunging into the water, and down the steeply terraced bank, with +leaping strides, was running a tall, slender figure clad in light gray. +Minute as it was, seen from that distance, Donald recognized it. It was +Philip, and his bursting heart gave voice to a cry of welcome and hope. +Philip would save Smiles! + +[Illustration: "HOLDING THE GIRL IN CLINGING WHITE CLOSE TO HIM"] + +True, he would save her for himself. He could not keep the thought out +of his surge of hope; but the erstwhile bitterness was swept away. +Nothing else mattered, if Rose could be saved. Measured by the ticking +of a clock, the action was taking place with dramatic speed; but, to his +quivering mind, it dragged woefully, and the periods when the light +failed caused him to cry aloud. + +Suddenly the searchlight of the sky was turned on, dazzlingly, and he +saw the unknown youth wading ashore, bearing in his arms a tiny form +whose animated arms and legs told the story of baby Don's timely rescue; +he saw Ethel running wildly toward them, to gather her offspring into +her outstretched arms; he saw Philip on the float, in the act of casting +himself prone. Then the picture faded once more and he railed at the +ensuing blackness as though it had been a wilful, animate thing. This +time it lasted longer, and the man's deep breath came in rasping sobs +before the scene was again revealed. Now there were two forms standing +unsteadily on the float; two forms that were almost one, for the man in +gray was holding the girl in clinging white close to him. Still, she +could stand; Smiles was alive, she was saved! And the watcher's lips +gave vent to a shout of relief and joy, a shout which ended in a groan. +All the power of his masterful will was not enough to make him do that +which he longed to--turn his tortured eyes from the picture which spelt +life to Rose, and death to all his golden dreams. + +Now he saw them moving slowly up the pier, the girl still leaning +heavily against the man, and supported by his encircling arm. They +paused, and Rose half turned, and slowly waved her hand toward the sea +in a reassuring gesture, and Donald whispered, "God bless her. She knows +that I have been a witness to the whole thing, and she remembers, thinks +of me, even at ... at this time. I cannot see her face, but I know that +she is smiling." + +The lingering effulgence from a final wave of light vanished; the two +forms toiling up the shore blended into the returning shadows; the +curtain of darkness fell, and the drama was ended. + +"Why could it not have been I?" groaned Donald. The wind, already spent +from its brief fury, chortled softly among the shrouds as though it was +laughing at him, another mortal made the victim of capricious Fate. +Surely it knew that he would have served as well as its agent and would +only too gladly have given his very life for Smiles, but it had wilfully +sent him away and sent Opportunity to Philip. + +Heroes and martyrs; what are they, after all, but the creatures of that +whimsical goddess? Most men and most women have within them the courage +to dare all things if the occasion comes, but to a few only, chosen, it +often seems, by chance, is that occasion granted. Yet, how often has the +history of life, both racial and individual, been changed by such an +event! + +Donald knew his star had sunk below the far horizon and that Philip's +had been carried to its zenith. The lover was likewise the rescuer. It +were as though the play had been written and the stage set for no other +purpose than to bring the romance to its culmination, and, now that this +had been accomplished, the useless properties were being removed. The +storm was over, ending as quickly as it had begun; the cloud-legions +were hurrying eastward overhead to form the setting of another tragedy +or farce somewhere else, or to return to the nothing which had given +them birth. A few faint flashes and a distant rumble or two marked their +passing. + +Along the western edge of the world appeared a narrow streak of ruddy +light, like burnished copper beneath the blackness above. Blazing forth +with the glory of a conqueror, the sun appeared within it, and seemed to +poise immovable for an instant 'twixt heaven and earth, while its +dazzling rays turned the living waters to molten gold. Then it slowly +sank from sight, and, like wraiths of the dying day, the night-shadows +began to creep out from the shore, deeper and deeper, nearer and nearer, +until they engulfed the little craft and its owner. + +With a sudden decision, Donald played out the sheet and put the tiller +over. The boat swung around into the path of the wind and fled seaward +again. He could not go home, now. He must fight out the battle with +self, as it is always fought, alone, and what place could be more +fitting than out there in the darkness, on the face of the troubled +waters? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +WHAT THE CRICKET HEARD + + +Two hours later Donald stumbled, like a strong man physically played +out, up the path to the cottage. + +Ethel saw him coming, and ran part way down the steps to meet him. With +her arms around his neck, she half-sobbed out the words in a choked +voice, "Oh, Don. Do you know what has happened? Could you see from your +boat? Little Donny? Smiles? Could you see, Don?" + +He nodded, dumbly; but his sister kept on, "She couldn't swim, but yet +she jumped, instantly, to save him. You see, she thought that she was +alone, she didn't know about that boy. Oh, Donald, we must do something +for him, something splendid. He saved my baby's life." + +Ethel was crying now, and the man forgot his own misery in comforting +her. + +"But why didn't you come, Donald? You didn't know...." + +"Yes, I knew that everything ... was all right. Rose waved to me and +called. I ... I _couldn't_ come, Ethel. I can't make you understand." + +With the light of understanding breaking in upon her mind, and bringing +a flood of sympathy with it, his sister once more drew close and +encircled his neck with her arms. + +"Where ... where is she?" he asked, as though the words were wrung from +him against his will. + +"Smiles has gone for a little walk with ... Dr. Bentley, dear," answered +Ethel in a manner which she strove to make commonplace. She felt his +frame quiver, and, with a motion that was almost rough, he shook off her +comforting arms, and mounted the steps, holding to the rail as he did +so. He went directly indoors, and to his room, with the instinct of a +wounded creature to seek its cave or burrow. Save for a cold, cheerless +patch of moonlight on the floor it was dark, and he felt no desire to +turn on the lights. For a while he sat, silent and motionless, on the +edge of the bed. But he could not stand the closed-in solitude. The +place seemed filled with the fragrant presence of the girl who was not +there; would never be there. He wanted to smoke, and went to the bureau +to fumble blindly for a pipe which he remembered he had left on it. His +hand touched something small and glazed, and he drew it sharply away. +The something was the little rose jar. Smiles' first gift to him, which +had travelled far since that morning on the mountain side, five years +before. + +The thoughts which would not be stilled repossessed his mind, and drove +him out-of-doors again,--through a side door, so that he would not have +to speak to his father and Ethel, whose voices he heard in low +conversation on the front porch. They ceased for a moment, as though +the speakers had heard the sound of his footsteps, and paused to listen. +The night was still, so still that the chirp of a cricket under the +piazza sounded loudly. It was a cheerful little note, and Donald hated +it for its cheer, and started hastily away toward the beach. + +High above, to the south, the moon was sailing through a sea of clouds, +in silent majesty. Moonlit nights he had seen aplenty since that one in +the Cumberlands, four summers previous, when he had climbed the +mountain, impatient to see once more the strange, smiling child who had +so stirred his imagination. In the old days he had loved the soft and +majestic radiance. Now he hated it. Had he not lived long in war-ridden +France, where every clear night illumined by that orb, which once had +been the glory of those who loved, had meant merely the advent of the +Hunnish fiends, whose winging visits brought death and devastation to +the sleeping towns below? + +He had fled from the darkness of his room, but now he craved the +darkness again, for, perchance, it might blot out the memory of other +nights, beautiful as golden dreams, or hideous as nightmares, when the +moon had shone as it did now. + +As he made a quick turn about a rocky obstruction in his rapid path, he +came almost full upon two others, a man and a woman. On the yielding +sand his footfalls had made no sound, and they were unaware of his +sudden approach. Donald stopped, and stepped hastily back out of sight; +but not before he had seen the man's arms gather the slender form of the +girl in close embrace, and seen her lift her sweet young +face--tear-bejeweled, but smiling with the tenderness of love--for his +kiss. + +With the rocks put between him and the two, Donald stood for a moment +with clenched fists pressed brutally against his eyes as though to grind +out the picture recorded there. Then, with blind but nervous strides, he +fled from the spot which, at the one time, held such happiness and such +despair. + +It was close to midnight when his steps bore him instinctively back to +the unlighted house; but this time the exercise and the cool night air +had failed to bring relief to his heart. He could not face the idea of +tossing for hours on a sleepless bed, and so passed the front door and +seated himself within the dark shadows of a corner of the piazza. + +"Chirr-r-p, chirr-r-p, chirr-r-p," began a pleasantly shrill little +voice beneath him. Over and over it repeated the sound, until the man's +feverish imagination had made it into "cheer-up," and he cursed the +cricket for its silly advice. So busy was his mind with introspection +that he did not hear the door open gently, and the first intimation that +he was not alone was brought to him by the sound of a light footstep +directly behind him. He turned his head, and saw a dim, ethereally white +figure,--Rose. + +"I thought that you would never come, Donald," she whispered, as she +sank down close by his side on Muriel's little stool, and laid her cool +hand on his fevered one. "I have been watching from my window for an +hour. I couldn't go to sleep until I had told you something." + +With an effort he answered evenly, "I ... I think that I know what it +is, Rose." + +"You know? But how ...?" + +"I saw you ... and Philip, on the beach," he replied, dully. + +"You saw ... Oh! And you heard what ...?" + +"No. I went away at once, of course. But I did not need to hear. I ... I +am glad if you are happy, Smiles." + +She was silent for a long moment; then whispered with a note of joy in +her low voice that wrung his heart, "Yes, I am very happy, Donald." + +"Philip is a splendid fellow." + +"You wanted me to ... to marry him, Don?" + +"I _wanted_ you to?" He barely succeeded in checking, unspoken, the +burning words on his tongue; but this time his voice betrayed him, and, +if he had not been resolutely keeping his face turned away from her, he +might have seen, even in that dim light, an odd change come into the +expression of her lovely face, and seen a wonderfully tender and +somewhat mischievous smile touch her lips. All that he did know, +however, was that she gave a low, happy laugh, which was like a +knife-thrust to his soul. + +"Don," she said at length, "I have told no one else of my great secret +yet, for I wanted to tell you, first of all. I couldn't go to sleep +without telling you, for you have been such a dear confidant and father +confessor to me that it seems as though I must tell you everything. I +... I've just got to tell you what has happened. May I?" + +The man barely smothered a groan. Must he hear this girl, in her +simplicity, talk on and on about the man she loved, and had promised to +marry? It struck him, too, as strange that she should be willing to lay +bare anything so sacred in a woman's life, but then she was her natural +self, and quite different from most girls, in her attitude toward him. + +But Rose was speaking quietly, and as though to herself, "Philip has +been so sweet and good to me while you were away. You remember that you, +yourself, told me that you meant him to take your place as my unofficial +protector, and that I should go to him with my perplexities. It would +have been better for me if I had followed your advice closer, but now I +can laugh at spilt milk." + +Rose had already confessed to Donald about her "investment" and been by +him cross-examined into an admission of her little charities, which, in +their aggregate, had so nearly wiped out her bank account. She could +laugh about them now, for she had won to her goal, and already begun to +earn a livelihood, but she had carefully hidden in her heart the story +of the bitter struggle in which she had engaged to make both ends meet +during the last few months of her course, when her mysterious refusals +to accept any invitations from Ethel, Miss Merriman or Philip for her +free afternoons and evenings, had left them wondering what on earth she +was doing. No one guessed that they were spent in earning the few sadly +needed dollars which her pride forbade her to borrow from any of them. + +"Now I can laugh at spilt milk," Smiles' words echoed in Donald's brain, +and hurt. He knew that Philip was fairly well-to-do, and, of course, +Rose would want for nothing when she married him. This was the thought +which brought the poignant stab. + +"It was not strange that I began ... that he became very dear to me, was +it, Donald?" + +The man shook his head dumbly. He could not answer her in words. + +"Perhaps I should not say it; but some time ago I began to guess that +... that he loved me. Not that he said a word, Donald, that is, not +until to-day,--and then he didn't say it," she laughed a little. "He +_wrote_ it and he ... he asked me to marry him. He said, besides, that +he had spoken to you, first, and that you had given your brotherly +consent. It was a very sweet letter, Don; the first real love letter +that I ever received, think of that!" + +Only by clinching his teeth and gripping the arms of the chair could the +man repress a groan. + +"It was after he had ... had saved my life that ..." She stopped, and +broke into her thought with the words, "Oh, Donald, I can never, never +forget to-night, and the awful feeling that I had when little Don went +into the water. You see, you were far away, and I didn't know about that +brave boy on the beach, so I thought that I had got to save him if I +could, and I didn't know _how_ I could. And then those black, cold waves +going over my head! I was quite sure that I was going to die, and I +almost hoped so for ... for I couldn't find Donny." + +She leaned her head against his knee and cried a little; but, when he +tried to speak, and tell her what had been in his heart, she interrupted +hastily with, "Oh, please, let's not speak of it, ever again. I know how +you felt, too. + +"It was after that that Philip asked me for my answer. I knew what it +was going to be, but ..." + +Donald could not stand it any longer. "I know. You love him, you are +going to marry him, Smiles. It's all right, he is a splendid fellow, +dear," he repeated mechanically. + +"Yes, he is, and I do love him," she replied quietly; but she could not +contain her secret any longer and added, "But a girl can't marry her +_brother_, Donald." + +"Her brother? Please, Rose, don't joke." + +"It's true!" + +"You! Philip's sister? It's impossible, unbelievable!" Yet a surge of +mad, uncontrollable joy swept over him, and his heart burst into song. + +"Unbelievable, yes. But it's _so_, Donald, although I can hardly credit +it yet, myself." + +"But how? Tell me how you found out. What happened?" + +"Don't, you're hurting my hand, Donald. I'll tell you all about it as +soon as I can, but please don't ask so many questions all at once, and +please tell me first that you are glad, that my great secret makes you +happy, as it does me." + +"Happy? Oh, great heavens! But you? Are you really pleased? You said +that you loved him!" + +"And so I did, and do ... dearly. But, you see, Donald, although I have +cared for him for a long, long while, there was something about my +affection that I could not explain, even to myself. It was ... was +different, somehow, from what ... from what I felt it must be for the +man whom I might marry. Now I know that it was the subconscious call of +the blood, the love of a sister for a brother, and never anything else." + +Lifted and swayed by a great happiness and reborn hope, Donald laughed +aloud. + +"Oh, you're a strange little girl, Smiles. I had not realized that you +were fully grown up until to-night; but now I know that you are a +woman,--a child no longer. My little Rose would never have tried to be +so dramatic, nor would she have tried to analyze her love, and label it +the call of kin, rather than that of a mate. I used to think that you +were a clear crystal in which I might see reflected your very heart and +soul, but now you have become a woman and therefore a mystery. Oh, +woman, what do you know about love? Not the kind that Philip inspired in +you; but the name which burns unquenchable--which purifies and +strengthens, or consumes the one who ..." he stopped, surprised at his +own rush of words,--and abashed. + +The hand, which she had slipped unconsciously into his, trembled and +thrilled him. + +"Perhaps ... I do ... know it, Donald," came the words, barely audible. + +"Smiles! It isn't possible that you ... that I ... Oh, my dear one, +don't say anything to make me hope anew, after what I have endured +to-night unless ..." + +"Do you really care, Don? In that _other_ way, I mean." + +He stood unsteadily up; things had become unreal and he could not speak. +Smiles, still holding his hand, rose also. The top of her head came just +below the level of his eyes; the moonlight across it set her wavy hair +to shimmering. She could not lift her eyes to his, but with a brave, low +voice, she went on, when she saw that he would not answer. + +"All this past week I have been the most brazen of girls, and +deliberately given you a hundred chances to tell me, if it were so. I +was quite sure that it couldn't be, and besides, you told Philip...." + +"I know; but I thought ... you see he told me that he loved you, and +that he was sure that you cared for him." + +"I did, just as I do now. Oh, man, you have been so blind, or so noble. +Have I got to _ask_ you to marry me?" + +For the barest instant she looked up at him, and he saw that the smile +he loved was whimsical as well as madly appealing. + +"No," almost shouted Donald. "I won't hear of such a thing as your being +one of these 'new women.' You're a siren out of the olden days of mystic +legend, and I have kept my ears stopped up against your witching song, +which I was afraid to hear. But now I want to hear it, day and night, +through eternity. Wait, not yet. First ... Smiles, will you marry me?" + +"Oh, what an anticlimax! Why did you have to become so practical and +unromantic, after such a splendid start," she laughed happily. "No lover +is supposed to ask that question with such brutal bluntness. Come, I +will teach you the romance of love." + +It was dark on the veranda. The moon had suddenly slipped out of sight +behind one of the laggards in the retreating cloud army; but Donald +needed no earthly light in order to realize that Rose was holding out +her arms to him, as simply and frankly as she had five years before. + +"Chir-r-r-p, chir-r-r-p, chir-r-r-p," thrilled the cricket underneath +the porch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A LOST BROTHER + + +How long it may have been before the man, eager as he was to hear the +full explanation of the seeming miracle through which his happiness had +been made possible, was ready to urge Rose to tell the story which she +had promised, and what whispered words the cricket heard in the interim, +concern only the three of them. + +When, at last, he was able to bring his winging thoughts down from the +clouds to earth, it was to discover still another unsuspected trait in +the woman who had become his all; for Smiles, eager and excited, was +still dwelling in a world of romance, and she insisted upon recounting +what had happened, almost verbatim, and in a dramatic manner quite +unlike the simplicity which naturally characterized her speech. + +Nor could Donald's commonplace interruptions, during the course of which +he affirmed that fact _was_ stranger than fiction and that the world +_was_ a small place after all, check her narrative. + +"I don't know whether I can make you understand why I acted as I did, +when Philip asked me for my answer, dear. Indeed, I hardly know, +myself," she began. "It wasn't that I didn't know what I had got to +tell him, for I had made up my mind long ago--at least, it seems long +ago, although it was only this morning, when I got his letter. Much as I +cared for him, my heart knew that there was only one man in the world +for me--even though he appeared not to want me!" + +The digression caused a further and wholly natural delay. + +"Perhaps it was because I hated to hurt him, and wanted desperately to +postpone the evil moment; but, at any rate, I begged him to wait, and +said that he didn't know all the facts about me. I told him that I +wasn't sure that I ought to marry any one. And that was true, Donald. +I've often worried about it, for I didn't know anything about my +parents, and heredity counts for so much, doesn't it? + +"Of course he replied, just as I might have expected, that he didn't +know what I meant, but that nothing else could possibly matter to him, +if only I ... I cared. + +"But I said that I had to explain,--I guess that I was a little +panic-stricken, he seemed so deadly in earnest,--and then I told him +that I wasn't Big Jerry's grandchild really, but only a little waif whom +he had taken in. 'So, you see, I am a nameless girl, Philip,' I said. 'I +don't mean it in a bad sense, for I know that I had a dear father and +mother, whom I just barely remember, but....' + +"I don't know exactly what I was going to add, but he broke in with, +'What earthly difference do you think that could make to me, dear?' And +then he told me that he _knew_ I was ... was good and pure, that _any +one_ who was acquainted with me could see that I must have come from +sterling stock, even if my parents were simple mountaineers. + +"'But they weren't, Phil,' I answered. 'I was a poor little city waif, +who had lost her parents and didn't know where she came from, or even +her name.' And then I told him the story which Big Jerry told you that +first night on the mountain. + +"And then, Donald, then it was my turn to be surprised, for Philip +grasped my arm until he hurt me, and cried, 'I can't believe it, Rose. I +_won't_ believe it!' + +"I didn't know what to say, and somehow I felt both hurt and a little +angry that it should make any difference in his love--yes, I did, in +spite of the fact that I couldn't marry him anyway. Yet, at the same +time, I had an impression that it wasn't that, but something quite +different, which was troubling his heart. So I said, 'What is it, +Philip? I do not understand why you are acting so strangely.' + +"His only reply was to ask me, in an odd voice, when it happened; how +long ago. + +"I told him 'eighteen years, when I was a baby about three years old.' +Don, I can't tell you how I felt then, for he looked so peculiar--almost +as though he were stunned. And he could not seem to say anything. I was +frightened. I begged him to speak to me, and told him that he looked as +though he had seen a ghost. 'I have ... at least I have if my suspicion +is true. But it can't be; oh, it is unbelievable, impossible,' he broke +out. + +"I didn't know what to say or do, he looked almost as though he were ... +were not in his right mind; and, when I put my hand on his arm and +begged him to tell me what the trouble was, he shook it off, and began +to speak ... oh, I cannot tell you how. It sounded as though some one +else were speaking, and uttering the words hesitatingly. + +"'Try and remember, Smiles. Call on your memory of the long ago, if +there is a single spark of it still lingering in your mind. Oh, it means +so much, dear, so much that I am almost afraid to ask the question, but +I have got to, I have got to!' + +"He waited until I thought I should go mad, Don, and then said, in +little more than a whisper, 'Did you ever, back in your babyhood, hear +the name, Anna Rose Young? Think, Smiles, think hard.' + +"Perhaps you will not believe it; but it seemed as though something long +forgotten were actually stirring in my heart, and as though it were +groping blindly in the mists of memory. I could not be sure, yet +something forced me to answer, uncertainly, 'Yes, I think, I believe +that I do remember that name; but I don't know where I could have heard +it. What do you mean, Philip?' + +"His answer surprised me as much as the first question, for he said, +'Was it in ... Louisville?' + +"'Louisville? I have never been there, Philip. And yet....' There was +the strange stir in my memory again. Oh, it was all so puzzling. + +"'Anna Rose Young,' he repeated insistently. 'They called her Rose, +because ... because her mother's name was the same.' + +"'They called _her_ ... Philip, I do remember, now. It's my own name! +Oh, Philip, you know who I am! But how, Phil?' I was clinging to him as +though I must draw the truth from him physically; but he went on, almost +mechanically, and his breath came hard, I could feel him tremble, Don." + +Now her own low voice was trembling excitedly. + +"'A tall, slender man, who stooped a little, Smiles,' he said. 'His face +was thoughtful and kindly. He had a close-clipped, pointed beard, and +wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and his eyes were very blue, as blue as +your own, Rose. Tell me, does the picture mean anything to you?' + +"I tried to visualize it, Don, and I could, as though it were some one +far, far off whom I could see through the mist. + +"'My daddy, Philip,' I whispered; I could hardly speak at all, for my +throat was aching and I was crying." + +She was crying, now, but did not realize it. + +"'A sweet-faced woman, with wavy brown hair in which were golden glints +like yours,' he went on, monotonously; but this time I could not answer +at all." + +Smiles stopped, and, for an instant, sobbed without restraint, with her +head against Donald's arm, and he ran his hand tenderly and unsteadily +over her hair. + +Then she lifted her face, bathed in tears, and whispered, "You +understand, don't you, Don? After all the years, to remember, ever so +vaguely; but, still, to remember my former life, and to know my own +name! Oh, I can't help it ... I couldn't when he told me." + +"Yes, yes. I understand, dearest." + +"Philip went on, desperately, it seemed to me. 'Another picture, Smiles. +Can you see a spindle-legged, mischievous boy of ten, who loved his +little sister dearly; but teased her from morning until night. His name +was ...' + +"'Tilly! Oh, I remember. At least, that was what baby Rose called him.' + +"'Yes, she called him Tilly. She called him that because ... because she +couldn't say ... "Philip." Oh, little Rose, don't you understand? I came +to find a wife, and I have found ... a sister!'" + +"But, his name ..." interrupted Donald. + +"I know. I will tell you. But first, Donald, my poor father and mother. +I thought that perhaps I was to find them, too; but God willed +otherwise. Big Jerry was right. They ... they were both drowned." + +Eager as he was to hear the rest of the story, the man could not but +keep silent, in understanding sympathy, until she was ready to proceed +of her own accord. It was once more as Smiles herself had written in her +letter to him, after Big Jerry's death. Happiness was tinged with grief, +for the night's strange disclosures had re-opened an old wound, long +since closed. + +Finally she went on. + +"I won't try to tell you the explanation in Philip's words; but it seems +that we used to live in Louisville. Philip's own father was a well-to-do +physician, named, of course, Dr. Bentley. He died when Phil was a baby, +and, when he was seven years old, mother married Mr. Robert Young, a +mining engineer. I was born a year later--I am really his half-sister, +you see." + +"But," interrupted Donald, "I should think that the name Philip Bentley +might have stirred a responsive chord in your memory before this--no, I +don't suppose that it would have, after all, for you were so small that +you didn't remember your own last name." + +"Yes, and not only that, but Philip was always called 'Young'--when he +was a boy, anyway. Well, it seems that, when he was ten, and I was +three, he was sent all alone to visit an uncle, a brother of his own +father, who lived in Richmond. It was while he was away for the summer +that my dear father was sent into the Cumberland Mountains between +Kentucky and Virginia, prospecting for coal on behalf of the company in +the employ of which he was. He took mother and me with him for a +camping vacation, and ... and you know as much as I about the tragedy +which separated us, and made such changes in our lives." + +Rose paused again, a prey to memory. + +"And then?" prompted Donald, gently. + +"Then, Philip said, when no word came from his parents for several +weeks, his uncle left no stone unturned to find them, and at length the +Federal Revenue authorities located the bodies of my dear mother and +father, and part of their wrecked canoe, in the swift river, almost at +the foot of the mountains. Of course every one assumed that I had ... +had been drowned, too." + +"Oh, thank God that you were not, my dear," breathed Donald, so softly +that she could not hear him. + +"Then Philip went to live permanently with his uncle, who raised and +educated him as one of his own sons. Of course he took his real name +again. Oh, Donald, isn't it too wonderful?" + +"Yes, dear heart, wonderful, indeed." There was a long silence. Then +Donald asked, softly, "And Philip? How does he feel?" + +"He ... he is happy, too," came her reply, somewhat haltingly. "Of +course, just at first ... oh, please don't ask me, Don. But now he is +content, for he knows that I ... I couldn't ever have been anything else +to him, because I loved ano.... I loved _you_." + +"He knows that? Rose, you didn't tell him?" + +"Yes, I did," she answered, bravely. "And let me tell _you_, sir, that +it is lucky for you that ... that you asked me; for, if you hadn't, you +would have had my big brother to deal with!" + +And what the cricket heard _then_, has nothing to do with this story. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE HALLOWED MOON + + +They were to be married early in September--just a month from the day +when Smiles so nearly gave her life to save another's. + +During the days which must pass before she became Donald's in +the full trinity of body, mind and soul, his family kept her at +Manchester-by-the-Sea and each hour bound her more closely to the heart +of each. + +For her, Ethel planned and purchased, sewed and supervised, putting as +much loving thought into the making of her simple outfit as though it +was she herself who was to be wedded. The days were busy ones, the +evening hours rich in love and contentment, for Donald came down from +the city each night, and the two learned the way to many a secret +chamber in each other's heart. + +Early in the week which was to bring to a close the separate stories of +the man and maid, and write the first chapter in the single history of +man and wife, Donald left them to make a brief, but important, trip +which, he said, could not be postponed; and oh, how empty life seemed to +Smiles during those few days. + +But they were ended at last, and the marriage evening came,--still and +mellow, with the voices of both shore and sea tuned to soft night +melodies. + +Below in the hall, hidden within a bower of palms, an orchestra of +Boston Symphony players drew whispering harmonies from the strings of +violins, harp and cello, and, at the signal, swept into the dreamy, +enchanted notes of Mendelssohn's marriage song. + +Little Don, very proud and important--and somewhat frightened--picked up +the train which he was to bear as page, and down the winding stairway, +by the side of her new-found brother, moved Rose, gowned in traditional +white, made with befitting simplicity, her shimmering hair no longer +crowned with the square of a nurse cap, but by a floating, misty veil +and the orange-blossom wreath of a bride. Never had her warm coloring +been so delicate and changeful, her expressive eyes so deep, or the +fleeting sweetness of her translucent smile so wonderful. + +At the foot of the stairs stood Muriel, and three other girl companions, +each with a woven sweetgrass basket--made years ago by little Smiles +herself--filled with rose petals to be strewn in her path, and the +bride's lowered eyes rested tenderly for a moment upon the child that +she so loved. Then she started, and paused. One of them, as tall as +Muriel and more slender, had hair of spun gold, and she was looking up +with an eagerness which she could hardly restrain. + +With a low, surprised cry, Smiles hurried downward, drawing her hand +from Philip's arm and extending both her own. + +"Little Lou. Can it really be you? Oh, my dear." + +And, heedless of the cluster of waiting friends beyond, she caught the +flushing, bashful, happy child into her arms. + +"Oh, Smiles, haint hit all too wonderful. Hit's like dreamy-land, an' +I'm plumb erfeered thet I'll wake up an' find hit haint real. But +_yo're_ real, my Smiles, an' oh, how I loves ye." + +There was a suspicious moisture in more eyes than those of Rose, as she +released the child and moved forward again, following the flower girls +into the room where waited the man who was all in all to her. + +Donald stood just to one side of a canopied altar made of white roses +and interwoven ferns, and before it was a tall, slender man in the +vestments of the Episcopal Church, whose thin, saintlike face was topped +by hair of the purest silver-white. + +Smiles felt her heart swelling almost painfully with a great new +happiness; her lips parted, and she wanted to draw her hand across her +eyes and brush away the sudden tears which she knew were there. For the +rector was her own dear Mr. Talmadge. + +Now Donald was at her side, and his strong fingers were returning the +grateful, loving pressure of her own. _He_ understood how full of +gratitude was her heart, and was repaid. + +The low, clear voice, tuned to the winds of the forest, began the words +of the beautiful service. It was, indeed, all a dream, and she felt the +unreality of it until the benediction had been spoken, and the hidden +orchestra struck the first joyous chords of the triumphant march from +Lohengrin. Then, from her husband's arms she turned to the embrace of +the mountain minister, and of Philip, and little Lou, and Gertrude +Merriman, and Dorothy Roberts, and of all those other friends, old and +new, who were so dear to her. + +No explanations were possible for many minutes to come; but at length +she heard the story of the secret trip "which could not be postponed," +of how "the reverend"--now well and strong at last--had gladly consented +to leave his beloved mountain home, for the first time in many, many +years, and come north on this sacredest of missions; of how Judd had +yielded to the request that Lou accompany them, too; and finally of how +her mountain lover of the old days was now himself married--to none +other than the youngest daughter of the kindly agent at Fayville. + +And when this news was told, Donald cried, "Why, Smiles, for shame! I +actually believe that you are jealous," and she replied, "Of course I am +... horribly." Whereupon every one laughed at her, and her husband +punished her with a kiss. + +It was ended at last, the lights, merry voices and laughter; and, as the +two ran the ancient gantlet, the orchestra, prompted thereto by Mr. +MacDonald, struck up a lively popular air, and the guests caught up the +words. + +They paused a moment on the path below the veranda, to quiet their +hurried breathing, and look into each other's happy eyes. + +"Where do we go from here?" _They_ knew. There had been but one spot in +all the world whose name both their hearts had spoken, when Donald first +mentioned the honeymoon to be. + + * * * * * + +Evening again--twilight on the Cumberland mountains. The moon had not +yet risen; but, through the black lacework of the forest trees which +stretched above Big Jerry's cabin to the mountain's summit, shone the +beaming radiance of the evening star. + +Within the soft shadow of the doorway stood two figures, close +together--one tall, broad of shoulder and heavily built, the other of +medium height, slender and very graceful--and their arms were about each +other's waists. A man and a woman,--as it was in the beginning. + +For a long time they stood thus, without speaking,--there was no need of +speech, for their thoughts were one. + +"So old and well remembered; yet so new and strangely beautiful," +whispered the woman, as she let her gaze travel over the broken, +far-stretching skyline of the forest-clad mountain side, now fading +into the sky, where a memory of the sunset's afterglow still lingered, +as though loath to depart and leave the world to darkness. + +"Like love: as old as the hills, yet ever new," answered the other. + +"Yes. I cannot yet understand, Don, how this new life can be so +strangely natural to me. We have been married only three all-too-short +days, yet I can scarcely think of the other life as real. Some people +speak of their honeymoon as a golden dream. To me it is the sweet +reality, and all that went before the dream. Isn't it odd?" + +"All of nature's laws are inexplicable, dear heart. But we should not +forget that the Almighty's plan for the world did not deal with man and +woman as separate entities, but man and woman as counterparts of a +single unit, in which His laws should find full expression, if the two +were truly mated--not merely married. You remember what Mr. Talmadge +said that night." + +"I know. We have found, not each other, but the other part of +ourselves--ourself. Dear, when did you first realize that it was so?" + +"My mind, not until it was free to face the truth; my subconscious soul +the first moment that I saw you, I think." + +"I know I loved you from that moment too," she answered simply, lifting +her lips for his kiss. + +There followed another spell of enchanted silence, broken only by the +low lullaby of the night wind in the trees, and then the man spoke +again. + +"Smiles, are you still greatly afraid of the sea?" + +"No, dear, I should not be, if you were with me. It is strange; but I +lost most of the old, unreasoning fear the moment that I made up my mind +to jump into it that afternoon. But, why do you ask that now, Donald?" +He did not reply at once, and she continued, "I think that I know, and +the same thought was in my own mind. Is it that you want to go to France +again, to renew the saving work there,--and want me with you?" + +He nodded slowly. + +"If you hadn't suggested it, I should have, Don; for now I am doubly +prepared for the work I began to long to do, so many years ago. I am not +only trained for it, but I have you beside me, to comfort and strengthen +me, always. + +"Yes, dear," she went on softly. "Some day, God grant, we shall have +little ones of our own to care for; but, until that beautiful time +comes, there are no less precious babies throughout all the world--and +there, especially--crying for us to help them. We must give of our best +to them, for, weak, tender and helpless as they are, the hope of the +world is in its babies." + +Through the dark tree-tops the new-born moon appeared on the breast of +night, around it a misty halo like that about the head of the Infant +who came nineteen centuries ago, typifying the hope of all mankind. + +"Look," said Donald. "Our honeymoon wears a halo." + +"Because it is a hallowed moon," answered Rose. + +The soft white radiance floated in, flooding the little porch and +illuminating the wife's sweet face as she lifted it again, now touched +with a smile, more meaningful and more ethereal than ever before. + +For, to the smile of courage, hope and love, had been added the quality +of rich, deep contentment. + +THE END + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MARK GRAY'S HERITAGE + +A Romance + +By Eliot Harlow Robinson + +Author of "Smiles: A Rose of the Cumberlands," "Smiling Pass," "The +Maid of Mirabelle," etc. + +Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +"What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh." + +Mr. Robinson's distinguished success came with the acclaim accredited to +his novel, SMILES, "The Best-Loved Book of the Year," and its sequel, +SMILING PASS. With delicate humor and a sincere faith in the beautiful +side of human nature, Mr. Robinson has created for himself a host of +enthusiastic admirers. In his new book he chooses a theme, suggested +perhaps by the old proverb quoted above ("Pilpay's Fables"). His setting +is a Quaker village, his theme the conflict between grave Quaker ideals +and the strength and hot blood of impulsive Mark Gray. + +Here is a book that is worthy of the reception accorded SMILES by all +readers who appreciate a story of deep significance, simply yet +powerfully built upon fundamental passions, wrought with a philosophy +that always sees the best in troubled times. + +The enthusiastic editor who passed on MARK GRAY'S HERITAGE calls +it--hardly too emphatically--"A mighty good story with plenty of +entertainment for those who like action (there is more of that in it +than in any other of Mr. Robinson's novels). The reading public will +unquestionably call it another courage book'--which they called the +SMILES books, you know. The language is both strong and smooth. The +story has a punch!" + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +POLLY THE PAGAN + +Her Lost Love Letters + +By Isabel Anderson + +With an appreciative Foreword by Basil King + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +Isabel Anderson, who heretofore has confined her literary talents to +writing of presidents and diplomats and fascinating foreign lands, +contributes to our list her first novel, POLLY THE PAGAN, a story of +European life and "high society." The story is unfolded in the lively +letters of a gay and vivacious American girl traveling in Europe, and +tells of the men whom she meets in Paris, in London or Rome, her +flirtations (and they are many and varied!) and exciting experiences. +Among the letters written to her are slangy ones from an American +college boy and some in broken English from a fascinated Russian Prince +(or was he disillusioned, when after dining at a smart Parisian cafe +with the adorable Polly he was trapped by secret police?); but the chief +interest, so far as Polly's _affaires d'amour_ are concerned, centers +around the letters from a young American, in the diplomatic service in +Rome, who is in a position to give intimate descriptions of smart life +and Italian society. + +The character drawing is clever, and the suspense as to whom the +fascinating Polly will marry, if indeed the mysterious young lady will +marry anybody, is admirably sustained. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +UNCLE MARY + +A Novel for Young or Old + +By Isla May Mullins + +Author of "The Blossom Shop" books, "Tweedie," etc. + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.75 + +Since the great success of POLLYANNA there have been many efforts to +achieve the "GLAD BOOK" style [Trade Mark] of fiction, but none so +successful as Mrs. Mullins' UNCLE MARY. + +Here is a story, charming in its New England village setting, endearing +in its characters, engrossing in its plot, and diverting in its style. +The PAGE imprint has been given to many books about beautiful characters +in fiction,--Pollyanna, Anne Shirley, Rose Webb of "SMILES," and Lloyd +Sherman of the "LITTLE COLONEL" books. To this galaxy we now add "Uncle" +Mary's protege, Libbie Lee. + +Mrs. Mullins is an author gifted with the ability to appeal to the young +in heart of whatever age. Her characters are visually portrayed. Her +situations have the interest of naturalness and suspense. The reader of +UNCLE MARY will become in spirit an inhabitant of Sunfield; will +understand the enjoyment of the sudden acquisition of wealth, a +limousine, and--an adopted child (!), by the sisters, "Uncle" Mary and +"Aunt" Alice; will watch with interest the thawing and rejuvenation of +"Uncle" Mary, the cure of Alice, and the solving of the mystery of the +wealth of sweet little Libbie Lee. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE RED CAVALIER + +Or, The Twin Turrets Mystery + +By Gladys Edson Locke + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +Here is a mystery story that is different! The subtlety and strangeness +of India--poison and daggers, the impassive faces and fierce hearts of +Prince Bardai and his priestly adviser; a typical English week-end house +party in the mystery-haunted castle, Twin Turrets, in Yorkshire; a vivid +and contrasting background. + +And the plot! Who is the mysterious Red Cavalier? Is he the ghost of the +ancestral portrait, that hangs in Sir Robert Grainger's strange library? +Is he flesh and blood, and responsible for the marauding thefts in the +neighborhood? Is he responsible for Prince Kassim's murder? Or is it +only coincidence that one of the guests at the masked ball happened to +wear the costume of the Red Cavalier? + +Miss Locke has been able to weave a weird and absorbing tale of modern +detective romance, the strangeness of India in modern England. + +There is Lady Berenice Coningsby, a bit _declasse_; Ethelyn Roydon, more +so; Princess Lona Bardai, "Little Lotus-Blossom," sweet and pathetic; +Mrs. Dalrymple, the woman of mystery; Miss Vandelia Egerton, the +spinster owner of Twin Turrets. There is dashing Max Egerton and the +impeccable Lord Borrowdean; Captain Grenville Coningsby; Prince Kassim +Bardai, with the impenetrable eyes, and Chand Talsdad, his venerable +adviser. Which of them is the Red Cavalier? + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Selections from The Page Company's List of Fiction + +WORKS OF +ELEANOR H. PORTER + +POLLYANNA: The GLAD Book (510,000) +Trade Mark Trade Mark + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +Mr. Leigh Mitchell Hodges, The Optimist, in an editorial for the +_Philadelphia North American_, says: "And when, after Pollyanna has gone +away, you get her letter saying she is going to take 'eight steps' +to-morrow--well, I don't know just what you may do, but I know of one +person who buried his face in his hands and shook with the gladdest sort +of sadness and got down on his knees and thanked the Giver of all +gladness for Pollyanna." + +POLLYANNA: The GLAD Book. Mary Pickford edition +Trade Mark Trade Mark + +Illustrated with thirty-two half-tone reproductions of scenes from the +motion picture production, and a jacket with a portrait of Mary Pickford +in color. + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, $2.25 + +While preparing "Pollyanna" for the screen, Miss Pickford said +enthusiastically that it was the best picture she had ever made in her +life, and the success of the picture on the screen has amply justified +her statement. Mary Pickford's interpretation of the beloved little +heroine as shown in the illustrations, adds immeasurably to the +intrinsic charm of this popular story. + +POLLYANNA GROWS UP: The Second GLAD Book +Trade Mark (253,000) Trade Mark + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +When the story of POLLYANNA told in The _Glad_ Book was ended, a great +cry of regret for the vanishing "Glad Girl" went up all over the +country--and other countries, too. Now POLLYANNA appears again, just as +sweet and joyous-hearted, more grown up and more lovable. + +"Take away frowns! Put down the worries! Stop fidgeting and +disagreeing and grumbling! Cheer up, everybody! POLLYANNA has come +back!"--_Christian Herald_. + +MISS BILLY (93rd thousand) + +Cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a painting by +G. Tyng, $1.90 + +"There is something altogether fascinating about 'Miss Billy,' some +inexplicable feminine characteristic that seems to demand the individual +attention of the reader from the moment we open the book until we +reluctantly turn the last page."--_Boston Transcript_. + +MISS BILLY'S DECISION (78th thousand) + +Cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a painting by +Henry W. Moore, $1.90 + +"The story is written in bright, clever style and has plenty of action +and humor. Miss Billy is nice to know and so are her friends."--_New +Haven Leader_. + +MISS BILLY--MARRIED (86th thousand) + +Cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a painting by +W. Haskell Coffin, $1.90 + +"Although Pollyanna is the only copyrighted glad girl, Miss Billy is +just as glad as the younger figure and radiates just as much gladness. +She disseminates joy so naturally that we wonder why all girls are not +like her."--_Boston Transcript_. + +SIX STAR RANCH (95th thousand) + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated by R. Farrington Elwell, $1.90 + +"'Six Star Ranch' bears all the charm of the author's genius and is +about a little girl down in Texas who practices the 'Pollyanna +Philosophy' with irresistible success. The book is one of the kindliest +things, if not the best, that the author of the Pollyanna books has +done. It is a welcome addition to the fast-growing family of _Glad_ +Books."--_Howard Russell Bangs in the Boston Post_. + +CROSS CURRENTS + +Cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +"To one who enjoys a story of life as it is to-day, with its sorrows as +well as its triumphs, this volume is sure to appeal."--_Book News +Monthly_. + +THE TURN OF THE TIDE + +Cloth decorative, illustrated, $1.50 + +"A very beautiful book showing the influence that went to the +development of the life of a dear little girl into a true and good +woman."--_Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio._ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOVELS BY + +ELIOT HARLOW ROBINSON + +Each one volume, cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.90 + +A book which has established its author in the front rank of American +novelists. + +SMILES, A ROSE OF THE CUMBERLANDS (29th thousand) + +E. J. Anderson, former managing Editor of the Boston _Advertiser_ and +_Record_, is enthusiastic over the story and says: + +"I have read 'Smiles' in one reading. After starting it I could not put +it down. Never in my life have I read a book like this that thrilled me +half as much, and never have I seen a more masterful piece of writing." + +SMILING PASS: A Sequel to "SMILES," A Rose of the Cumberlands + +The thousands who have read and loved Mr. Robinson's earlier story of +the little Cumberland mountain girl, whose bright courage won for her +the affectionate appellation of "Smiles," will eagerly welcome her +return. + +"Applied sociology, mixed with romance and adventure that rise to real +dramatic intensity. But the mixture is surprisingly successful. The +picture impresses one as being faithfully drawn from the living models +with sympathetic understanding. The book is effective."--_New York +Evening Post_. + +THE MAID OF MIRABELLE: A Romance of Lorraine + +Illustrated with reproductions of sketches made by the author, and with +a portrait of "The Maid of Mirabelle," from a painting by Neale Ordayne, +on the cover. + +"The spirit of all the book is the bubbling, the irrepressibly +indomitable, cheerful faith of the people, at their very best, against +the grave Quakerism from the United States standing out grimly but +faithfully. The tale is simply, but strongly told."--_Montreal Family +Herald and Weekly Star_. + +MAN PROPOSES; Or, The Romance of John Alden Shaw + +"This is first of all a charming romance, distinguished by a fine +sentiment of loyalty to an ideal, by physical courage, indomitable +resolution to carry to success an altruistic undertaking, a splendid +woman's devotion, and by a vein of spontaneous, sparkling humor that +offsets its more serious phases."--_Springfield Republican_. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE ROMANCES OF + +L. M. MONTGOMERY + +Each one volume, cloth decorative, 12mo, $1.90 + +ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (364th thousand) + +Illustrated by M. A. and W. A. J. Claus. + +"In 'Anne of Green Gables' you will find the dearest and most moving and +delightful child since the immortal Alice."--_Mark Twain in a letter to +Francis Wilson_. + +"I take it as a great test of the worth of the book that while the young +people are rummaging all over the house looking for Anne, the head of +the family has carried her off to read on his way to town."--_Bliss +Carman_. + +ANNE OF AVONLEA (259th thousand) + +Illustrated by George Gibbs. + +"Here we have a book as human as 'David Harum,' a heroine who outcharms +a dozen princesses of fiction, and reminds you of some sweet girl you +know, or knew back in the days when the world was young."--_San +Francisco Bulletin_. + +CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA (45th thousand) + +Illustrated by George Gibbs. + +"The author shows a wonderful knowledge of humanity, great insight and +warmheartedness in the manner in which some of the scenes are treated, +and the sympathetic way the gentle peculiarities of the characters are +brought out."--_Baltimore Sun_. + +ANNE OF THE ISLAND (68th thousand) + +Illustrated by H. Weston Taylor. + +"It has been well worth while to watch the growing up of Anne, and the +privilege of being on intimate terms with her throughout the process has +been properly valued. The once little girl of Green Gables should have a +permanent fictional place of high yet tender esteem."--_New York +Herald_. + +FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA (20th thousand) + +Illustrated by John Goss. + +Nathan Haskell Dole compares Avonlea to Longfellow's Grand Pre--and +says, "There is something in these continued chronicles of Avonlea like +the delicate art which has made Cranford a classic." + +"The reader has dipped into but one or two stories when he realizes that +the author is the most natural story teller of the day."--_Salt Lake +City Citizen_. + +ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: The Mary Miles Minter Edition + +Illustrated with twenty-four half-tone reproductions of scenes from the +motion picture production, and a jacket in colors with Miss Minter's +portrait. + +Cloth decorative, 12mo, $2.25 + +"You pass from tears to laughter as the story unfolds, and there is +never a moment's hesitation in admitting that Anne has completely won +your heart."--Joe Mitchell Chapple, Editor, _The National Magazine_. + +"Mary Miles Minter's 'Anne' on the screen is worthy of Mark Twain's +definition of her as the 'dearest and most moving and delightful child +since the immortal "Alice."'"--_Cambridge Tribune_. + +KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD (52d thousand) + +Illustrated by George Gibbs. Cloth decorative, 12mo, $1.90 + +"A purely idyllic love story full of tender sentiment, redolent with the +perfume of rose leaves and breathing of apple blossoms and the sweet +clover of twilight meadow-lands."--_San Francisco Bulletin_. + +"A story born in the heart of Arcadia and brimful of the sweet and +simple life of the primitive environment."--_Boston Herald_. + +THE STORY GIRL (46th thousand) + +Illustrated by George Gibbs. Cloth decorative, 12mo, $1.90 + +"It will be read and, we venture to predict, reread many times, for +there is a freshness and sweetness about it which will help to lift the +load of care, to cheer the weary and to make brighter still the life of +the carefree and the happy."--_Toronto, Can., Globe_. + +"'The Story Girl' is of decidedly unusual conception and interest, and +will rival the author's earlier books in popularity."--_Chicago Western +Trade Journal_. + +THE GOLDEN ROAD (28th thousand) + +Illustrated by George Gibbs. Cloth decorative, 12mo, $1.90 + +In which it is proven that "Life was a rose-lipped comrade with purple +flowers dripping from her fingers." + +"It is a simple, tender tale, touched to higher notes, now and then, by +delicate hints of romance, tragedy and pathos. Any true-hearted human +being might read this book with enjoyment, no matter what his or her +age, social status, or economic place."--_Chicago Record-Herald_. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOVELS BY + +ISLA MAY MULLINS + +Each, one volume, cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, $1.75 + +THE BLOSSOM SHOP: A Story of the South + +"Frankly and wholly romance is this book, and lovable--as is a fairy +tale properly told."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_. + +ANNE OF THE BLOSSOM SHOP: Or, the Growing Up of Anne Carter + +"A charming portrayal of the attractive life of the South, refreshing as +a breeze that blows through a pine forest."--_Albany Times-Union_. + +ANNE'S WEDDING + +"Presents a picture of home life that is most appealing in love and +affection."--_Every Evening, Wilmington, Del_. + +THE MT. BLOSSOM GIRLS + +"In the writing of the book the author is at her best as a story teller. +It is a fitting climax to the series."--_Reader_. + +TWEEDIE: The Story of a True Heart + +"The story itself is full of charm and one enters right into the very +life of Tweedie and feels as if he had indeed been lifted into an +atmosphere of unselfishness, enthusiasm and buoyant optimism."--_Boston +Ideas_. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOVELS BY + +DAISY RHODES CAMPBELL + +THE FIDDLING GIRL + +Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.65 + +"A thoroughly enjoyable tale, written in a delightful vein of +sympathetic comprehension."--_Boston Herald_. + +THE PROVING OF VIRGINIA + +Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.65 + +"A book which contributes so much of freshness, enthusiasm, and healthy +life to offset the usual offerings of modern fiction, deserves all the +praise which can be showered upon it."--_Kindergarten Review_. + +THE VIOLIN LADY + +Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.65 + +"The author's style remains simple and direct, as in her preceding +books."--_Boston Transcript_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Smiles', by Eliot H. 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