u working so hard. You've really grown thin and pale lately,"
I added.

"It won't be for long; I'll soon be through with it now--" Jessie was
beginning, when a cheerful voice from the doorway echoed her words:

"No; it won't be for long! That's a comfort, ain't it?"

We both started. We had been so engrossed that we had heard no one
approaching, and, even if we had, we could scarcely have been less
startled, for the man leaning comfortably against the door-jamb was
Jacob Horton. It had been many weeks since he had, to our knowledge,
set foot on our premises.

"Good morning, Miss Jessie and Leslie," he began affably. "Nice
morning, ain't it? I've been living in this valley going on eight
year, and I don't recollect as ever I see a nicer mornin' than this
is."

He put one foot upon the door sill--a suggestive attitude--but neither
of us invited him to enter. He was not easily daunted, however. The
hand that rested against the door-jamb was still bandaged, and, as I
made out with a swift glance, a button was still missing from his
coat. It was the coat that he had worn on the night that he had
ostensibly salted the cattle in the far pasture. From his point of
observation Mr. Horton, turning slightly, threw an admiring glance
around. The glance seemed to include the outer prospect as well as the
inner.

"This is a sightly place for a house, ain't it?" he remarked. "I
do'no--I really do'no but I'd like that knoll t'other side the river
just as well, though, and it would be nigher the spring. I'll speak to
my wife about it; if she likes this spot better, why, here our house
goes up. I shan't object. We can move this contraption that your
father built, back for a hen house, or a pig-pen; just as she says. I
always try to please my wife."

"When you get ready, perhaps you'll kindly tell us what you are
talking about, Mr. Horton," Jessie said, rising from the sewing
machine and going toward the door, whither I followed her.

"Tell you? Oh, yes, I forgot. Of course you girls can't be expected to
know--young as you be--that you can't hold this claim. This claim was
open for re-entry the day that your father was drowned. I wasn't ready
to take it up just then; I am ready now. Odd, ain't it? I've been
hearin' some talk--my wife told me, in fact--that you girls had laid
out to go down to the land office with your witnesses to offer final
proof to-morrow; Well, now--he, he! That's a reg'lar joke, for if
you'll believe it, t